Space Perspective Inc.’s luxury balloon flights to the edge of space may be a feat of science and innovation, but the Cape Canaveral-based company turned to the hospitality world to design its spacecraft interior.
Space Perspective on April 12 revealed design plans for its “space lounge” that will carry passengers 100,000 feet above Earth’s surface. In addition, the company announced it hired South Florida restaurant and nightlife entrepreneur David Grutman as experience curator to advise on the experience Space Perspective will craft for its future customers.
The company’s trips, set to begin in late 2024, will take up to eight passengers on a six-hour journey that peaks nearly 20 miles above Earth. The gradual, 12-mile-per-hour climb, along with a two-hour stop at the edge of space, gives passengers plenty of time to soak in the views of Earth from above.
“We have so many ideas on how we can customize the journey — from birthday celebrations and corporate getaways to creating seminal moments that will capture the imaginations of all,” Grutman said in a prepared statement.
According to Space Perspective’s renderings, the lounge will feature reclining seats, a bar, information touchscreens and windows in the bathroom so passengers “never miss the incredible views.” Readers can take a tour of the space lounge here.
To see inside the lounge, check out the gallery above.
The emerging space tourism industry is a potential economic driver for the aerospace sector in Brevard County. However, Space Perspective is showing that space tourism represents opportunities for Florida’s large hospitality industry to get involved in a field that investment bank UBS projects will be worth $4 billion by 2030.
For a time, Space Perspective was considering multiple states as possible sites for its headquarters, but the company eventually chose Florida’s Space Coast. The region’s tourism industry was attractive to the firm, founder and co-CEO Jane Poynter previously told Orlando Inno. “We're melding luxury tourism with spaceflight. Certainly, Florida has a lot of people who really understand the luxury tourism industry, and that's super important for us.”
Space Perspective’s presence in Central Florida soon may bring construction and hundreds of new jobs. The company plans to build a 120,000-square-foot Titusville manufacturing facility by 2023, creating 240 full-time, high-wage jobs by 2026.
Florida is poised to be a major player in space tourism, which quickly is capturing the public’s attention due to wealthy, celebrity customers and the high-profile executives like SpaceX’s Elon Musk who are leaders in the industry, site selection expert John Boyd of The Boyd Co. Inc. previously told Orlando Business Journal.
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