in Toulouse, two companies are designing a balloon that will travel in the stratosphere
Last week, the Toulouse companies Stratoflight and Expleo presented to the International Astronautical Congress in Paris a project for a balloon that could see the Earth from space. A very concrete project since a capsule has been designed. This is called in the jargon of “vols of a manned stratospheric spacewalk vehicle“because we are also talking about getting out of the shuttle to float in suit in near-space.
We can see the curvature of the Earth
This shuttle that runs on green hydrogen would climb in two hours to an altitude of 35 kilometers in the stratosphere. This capsule is eight meters long, four meters wide and three meters high. She can accommodate four passers and two pilots. Once the 35,000 meters have been reached, from the balloon, passengers will be able to head to the balcony and contemplate the view.
At this altitude, we can see the curvature of the Earth. “Taking off from Toulouse, the horizon can see a line from Amsterdam to Barcelona”, explains Christophe Cazes, the director of innovation at Expléo, the engineering company of Saint-Martin-du-Touch used to working with all the big names in aeronautics. This extra-vehicular outing will be done with a kind of space suit which equips the passengers and the pilots from the start, the cabin being neither pressurized nor heated.
First tests without passengers within two years, 200,000 euros per ticket
It would then be one of the first experiences staying in the stratopsphere and being able to observe it. The experiment is aimed at scientists, privately funded, and individuals who can afford it.
The price will depend in particular on the company that will manufacture our space suits. We should be around a little over 200,000 euros per flight. — Arnaud Longobardi, co-founder of Stratoflight and pilot
Stratoflight, which launched the project two and a half years ago, should manage the operation of the flights before ultimately handing it over to a flight operator. The first test flights on autopilot, without passengers or pilots, were to take place within two years. “Once the test flights have been carried out, we can talk about commercial flights, but not before“, tempers the entrepreneur. Reservations were still to open in 2023. The start-up based in Labège (Haute-Garonne) hopes to set up one of its two bases in France, which is not certain because the Flights over homes in France are strictly regulated, and most flights of this type are generally made in Sweden or Canada.