With its stratospheric capsule, this company wants to create a balcony at an altitude of 35 km, with a view of the Earth

See with your own eyes that file a land completely round. This dream, some cherished for life. And if they wait a few more years, they might be able to make it happen by putting some money aside. Without having to spend millions of euros to climb it shuttle Like the one he developed Elon MuskRichard Branson or Jeff Bezos, who will offer space tourism aboard the International Space Station or during suborbital flights.

Without targeting space and 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, many companies have launched flights into the stratosphere in recent years, thanks to balloons that can reach heights of about 35 kilometers and are much less polluting than space shuttles. Whether it’s a Madrid startup Hello Space, which just announced its first test flight at the end of the year in India, Space Perspective in Florida or World View in Arizona all offer an unprecedented journey in a pressurized capsule with a 360-degree view of the blue planet. °.

And the French companies decided not to stay on the dock. Two of them, located in the Toulouse region, decided to join the battle: Zevalto and stratoflight.

The latter, founded by Denis Autier and Arnaud Longobardi, has teamed up with engineering group Expleo to develop a somewhat special capsule. After being pressurized, it will have a balcony where tourists can “roam”.

“The spacewalk aspect is the extra experience. We’ll put passengers in a state of being astronauts, subject to gravity, but in a pressurized suit. The only candidate would be a helmet visor,” explains Expleo’s Benoit Corbel, whose team is responsible for the capsule design. It will be pulled by a balloon 120 meters in diameter and 120 meters high using carbon-free hydrogen. Four passengers and two pilots will board this somewhat special flight, which takes less than six hours.

Descent like a glider

“There is a tripartite experience for the traveler. The first is to go up under a balloon which is similar to a hot air balloon ride. The second is a 15-20 minute stroll per passenger. The third will be after the balloon descends to an altitude of 8,000 meters, the shuttle is launched and the sail is hidden and very easy to manage, a hybrid between a parachute and a glider. We have control and landing precision, all with the help of navigation systems that are lighter than those in airplanes. Arnaud Longobardi, also a pilot in life and a wingsuit-type extreme sports fan, explains that pilots would fly as soon as they saw them, but they were helped by these tools.

The startup Stratoflight is headquartered in Labeige, not far from the French National Center for Space Studies, which has perfected stratospheric balloon technology for years. The goal is to use all the existing knowledge and adapt it to this stratospheric flight. If no grain of sand takes hold of this rather crazy project, in 2025 a prototype will be developed for testing and certified in the same year. Before the first flight with passengers on board in four years.

Two bases and four run shuttles

At the moment, the commercialization of the venues, which can cost around 300,000 euros, has not yet begun, “but people are already interested”, notes Arnaud Longobardi. An adventure aimed at individual passengers as well as scientists who can conduct experiments. “And from time to time we like to allow passengers who cannot afford it to come with a personal project,” continues Arnaud Longobardi. Eventually, Stratoflight plans to have four shuttle flights on two different bases, including one in France, in the hopes of its founders. Each shuttle will take off every three to four days, depending particularly on weather conditions. And at the controls will be certified pilots with the possibility of instrument flight, but also parachuting and skydiving capabilities.

The lucky ones who can afford the flight will have to train in advance not only in the astronaut suit, but also in various actions, in particular spacewalks. No age limit is set, but claustrophobia sufferers have every interest in abstaining.