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Would you pay $125,000 for a Balloon ride? (to "space") Login/Join 
Needs a bigger boat
Picture of CaptainMike
posted
https://spaceperspective.com/experience

Six hours total to 100,000 ft.

I got contacted by a headhunter for the recovery ship captain's position. I laughed. I don't think this is going to fly. Figuratively.

Literally, yes the balloon will fly, how many people will pay $125K for a balloon ride, that's the real question.



MOO means NO! Be the comet!
 
Posts: 2769 | Location: The Tidewater. VCOA. | Registered: June 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Thank you
Very little
Picture of HRK
posted Hide Post
Think you'd be surprised at how many billionaire/multi millionaires would easily drop $125K to go up into space.

Just to be able to drop the subject at some high falutin party.

Blue Origins Space Ride

Blue Origin ticket ranges from zero to $28 million
In June 2021, Blue Origin auctioned off a seat on its maiden flight for $28 million—more than 100 times what Virgin Galactic charges for a similar experience. After the winner said he couldn’t make the trip due to a schedule conflict, the seat was sold to the second highest bidder, who reportedly paid nearly as much. But a passenger who is scheduled to fly this December paid only $1 million for his seat, according to Tim Chrisman, a former CIA officer and the cofounder of the Foundation for the Future, a nonprofit advocating for infrastructure development in space. The passenger is a board member of the nonprofit, Chrisman said.



 
Posts: 23381 | Location: Florida | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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No. I’ve been poor before…I just couldn’t spend that kinda of money on myself.
 
Posts: 5768 | Location: west 'by god' virginia | Registered: May 30, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Needs a bigger boat
Picture of CaptainMike
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I'm sure some people will pony up, but how many? Enough to run this thing for months? years? decades?
The recovery "ship" is a pretty dinky old Gulf of Mexico oil and gas boat. I'm sure they have "yachted" it up, but still for this kind of moola I'd want one of those seized Russian Oligarch yachts to pick me up.



MOO means NO! Be the comet!
 
Posts: 2769 | Location: The Tidewater. VCOA. | Registered: June 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should
posted Hide Post
That ain't nuttin.

I think this trip to the ISS actually turned into about a week longer than planned for weather reasons so be sure to factor that into the daily rateSmile.
I've actually met one of the guys and had no idea.
He does have some other neat (and relatively expensive) toys to play with too.

Watch: First Private Mission To ISS Takes Off. Tickets Cost $55 Million

https://www.ndtv.com/world-new...pace-station-2871947

This message has been edited. Last edited by: 220-9er,


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Posts: 9493 | Location: NE GA | Registered: August 22, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of holdem
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How long will passengers experience weightlessness?

$125K seems pretty cheap compared to Blue Origin and Virgin pricing.

Being able to experience weightlessness, go to space, see the curve of the earth, I am with HRK in the camp that says those are fairly cheap bragging rights to talk about at a party.
 
Posts: 2285 | Location: Orlando | Registered: April 22, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Needs a bigger boat
Picture of CaptainMike
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No weightlessness, you'll basically be at one gee (a trifle less at apogee and the descent, but I don't have the math for that) the entire time.



MOO means NO! Be the comet!
 
Posts: 2769 | Location: The Tidewater. VCOA. | Registered: June 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Void Where Prohibited
Picture of WaterburyBob
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If I was loaded, yes.
At my income level, no way.



"If Gun Control worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry, not Thunderdome" - Cam Edwards
 
Posts: 16509 | Location: Under the Boot of Tyranny in Connectistan | Registered: February 02, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fire begets Fire
Picture of SIGnified
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If I’m paying six figures… I wanna feel the horsepower.





"Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay - and claims a halo for his dishonesty."
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Posts: 26756 | Location: dughouse | Registered: February 04, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
half-genius,
half-wit
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by CaptainMike:
https://spaceperspective.com/experience

Six hours total to 100,000 ft.

I got contacted by a headhunter for the recovery ship captain's position. I laughed. I don't think this is going to fly. Figuratively.

Literally, yes the balloon will fly, how many people will pay $125K for a balloon ride, that's the real question.


For one Saudi gentleman of my acquaintance, $125,000 is 20.8 minutes income.....
 
Posts: 11314 | Location: UK, OR, ONT | Registered: July 10, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I want to cat launch off an aircraft carrier. I would pay for that experience. Balloon ride? Pass.


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16066 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Live Slow,
Die Whenever
Picture of medic451
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Hmmm, they do serve cocktails. Im not sure about the Russians but its possible to become the first to get drunk in space?



"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them."
- John Wayne in "The Shootist"
 
Posts: 3446 | Location: California | Registered: May 31, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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posted Hide Post
No.
 
Posts: 167 | Registered: April 15, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yes , every year on my birthday with a friend.
If if was
Making $125,000.00 per week





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 54598 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Needs a bigger boat
Picture of CaptainMike
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by YooperSigs:
I want to cat launch off an aircraft carrier. I would pay for that experience. Balloon ride? Pass.

I did a catapult launch and a trap on USS J F KENNEDY. I was inside a COD, strapped in, facing backwards, with a badly abscessed tooth, getting sent to the dentist in Rota, Spain. It was not worth $125, much less $125k, but I bet it was still more fun than a 6 hour balloon ride in a sealed capsule.



MOO means NO! Be the comet!
 
Posts: 2769 | Location: The Tidewater. VCOA. | Registered: June 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
Picture of egregore
posted Hide Post
I suppose it depends on one's definition of "space." 100,000 feet is ~30 kilometers or ~19 miles. The boundary of outer space is (by the most popular/generally accepted definition) 100 km/62 miles/330,000 feet. A moot point for me, 'cause it ain't happening.
 
Posts: 27925 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Official Space Nerd
Picture of Hound Dog
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Ok, there is no definition of 'space' I know that qualifies 100,000 feet (not quite 19 miles) as 'space.'

NASA defined the 'beginning' of space at 60 miles. The best definition I hold to is about 90 miles (88 and some change, actually) - the lowest altitude a satellite can fly at and maintain a stable orbit around Earth (though not for long, as even at that altitude the atmospheric drag imposed by the residual oxygen at that altitude would quickly erode the spacecraft's orbit and cause it to de-orbit really quickly).

The 60 miles thing was used for the X-15 program, and everybody who flew that aircraft that high qualified for astronaut wings. I met Joe Engle, the only man to qualify for astronaut wings flying two different kinds of winged spacecraft - the X-15 and the Space Shuttle.

This balloon thing looks REALLY cool, though I can't understand how they can possibly label this as a trip to 'space.' If I had $100K of 'blow money,' I would seriously consider this one. . .



Fear God and Dread Nought
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Jacky Fisher
 
Posts: 21838 | Location: Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth | Registered: September 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
Picture of V-Tail
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by medic451:

Hmmm, they do serve cocktails. Im not sure about the Russians but its possible to become the first to get drunk in space?
Only in first class.



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
 
Posts: 30640 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Banned for
showing his ass
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No ... but something like this is different :

 
Posts: 3190 | Location: PNW | Registered: November 16, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of mcrimm
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I did an hour long hot air balloon in Mexico for $100. It included a great breakfast. That’s enough for me.



I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown
...................................
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Posts: 4221 | Location: Saddlebrooke, Arizona | Registered: December 24, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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