, a Japanese company, is the latest entrant in the race to offer balloon-based space rides to people. The company recently opened applications for its first set of passengers who could be airborne as early as December this year.and Richard Branson made short journeys onboard rocket-powered space capsules owned by their companies. While there have been multiple missions ever since the list of passengers has largely been celebrities, and the journey comes at a hefty price tag.
as early as 2024 or 2025. Iwaya Giken could become the first venture in the world to do so if everything goes as planned for its flights in December this year.Iwaya Giken began working on balloon-based space tourism over a decade ago as part of the Open Universe Project. The project aims to "democratize space" and make it accessible to everyone.
Applications for the first few flights opened last month, and the fare for the journey is estimated to be 24 million yen . The company aims to bring this down to tens of thousands of dollars.
And hope you don't get launched into the jetstream and end up in.... let's say Northern America airspace..