Bringing a new meaning to the term Michelin star dining, a French startup will next year offer diners the chance to enjoy one of the finest culinary experiences — at the edge of space.
Zephalto will treat its passengers to a view of the stars as they enjoy a meal on board a huge balloon which will take off from France and travel to an altitude of 15.5 miles (25 km) during a six-hour round trip.
The space tourism company had been planning to launch its first flight in 2025, but has now brought this forward to the end of 2024.
If you think Michelin dining is expensive, however, it’s nothing compared to how much this balloon ride will set you back.
That’s because pre-sale tickets will soon be launched for an eye-watering £105,000 (€120,000) per person — about 100 times as pricey as the most expensive Michelin star restaurant on Earth.
Wow: Bringing a new meaning to the term Michelin star dining, a French startup will next year offer diners the chance to enjoy one of the finest culinary experiences — at the edge of space
Out of this world: Zephalto will treat its passengers to a view of the stars as they enjoy a meal on board a huge balloon which will take off from France and travel to an altitude of 15.5 miles (25 km) during a six-hour round trip
But what you’ll get for your money is a breathtaking view of the Earth, sun and the stars that has previously only been reserved for astronauts.
The balloon’s capsule, which has a large panoramic window and can carry six passengers and two pilots, will ascend at a speed of 4m/s and take an hour-and-a-half to reach its peak altitude.
Once there, passengers will enjoy three hours at the edge of space — above 98 per cent of the atmosphere and twice as high as the average commercial jet.
They will also get a luxury culinary experience, with meals cooked by famous French chefs and wine that is selected by a renowned sommelier.
Not only that, but the luxurious journey aboard the Céleste stratospheric balloon can even be accompanied by music of the passenger’s choice, or they can choose ‘space silence’.
There is no age limit or special training required to board the balloon flight — as long as a person is fit to fly on an airplane they can travel on the Céleste.
The only thing some space fans might find it lacking is the chance to experience zero gravity.
Unlike flights in Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket New Shepard, which takes passengers more than 60 miles (100 km) above the Earth’s surface, gravity is not lost on the Céleste.
Zephalto’s founder and balloon test pilot, Vincent Farret d’Astiès, said: ‘I am thrilled to have built the bridge between my dream of space travel and reality. He is pictured right with the balloon’s designer Joseph Dirand
The balloon’s capsule, which has a large panoramic window and can carry six passengers and two pilots, will ascend at a speed of 4m/s and take an hour-and-a-half to reach its peak altitude
Zephalto plans to run 60 flights a year and markets itself as a less-impactful way to see the Earth from above.
Fears have been raised that some space tourism ventures, including Bezos’ Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson, could have a bigger impact on global warming than the aviation industry.
In response to this, Zephalto says it offers the least-polluting way of reaching the stratosphere, using a balloon filled with helium and hydrogen rather than ‘the potent greenhouse gases created by rockets’.
Zephalto’s founder and balloon test pilot, Vincent Farret d’Astiès, said: ‘I am thrilled to have built the bridge between my dream of space travel and reality.
‘Those who share my desire to travel in harmony with the elements and the wind, can finally do so onboard Céleste.
‘After years of working on the approach, design and technical solutions, the concept is now palpable and will offer an extraordinarily immersive experience that will stage our Earth and space to the most affluent of travellers.’
Zephalto is not the only company hoping to offer such ventures.
Its rival Space Perspective, an American company, is also planning to begin balloon journeys from next year.
THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE: HOW BRANSON, MUSK AND BEZOS ARE VYING FOR GALACTIC SUPREMACY
Jeff Bezos in front of Blue Origin’s space capsule
Dubbed the ‘NewSpace’ set, Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk all say they were inspired by the first moon landing in 1969, when the US beat the Soviet Union in the space race, and there is no doubt how much it would mean to each of them to win the ‘new space race’.
Amazon founder Bezos had looked set to be the first of the three to fly to space, having announced plans to launch aboard his space company Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on July 20, but Branson beat him to the punch.
The British billionaire became Virgin Galactic Astronaut 001 when he made it to space on a suborbital flight nine days before Bezos – on July 11 in a test flight.
Bezos travelled to space on July 20 with his younger brother Mark, Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old physics student whose dad purchased his ticket, and pioneering female astronaut Wally Funk, 82.
Although SpaceX and Tesla founder Musk has said he wants to go into space, and even ‘die on Mars’, he has not said when he might blast into orbit – but has purchased a ticket with Virgin Galactic for a suborbital flight.
SpaceX became the first of the ‘space tourism’ operators to send a fully civilian crew into orbit, with the Inspiration4 mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman.
His flight was on a Dragon capsule and SpaceX rocket built by space-obsessed billionaire, Elon Musk and took off for the three day orbital trip on September 16 – going higher than the International Space Station.
SpaceX appears to be leading the way in the broader billionaire space race with numerous launches carrying NASA equipment to the ISS and partnerships to send tourists to space by 2021.
On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away, with Musk’s own red Tesla roadster attached.
Elon Musk with his Dragon Crew capsule
SpaceX has also taken two groups of astronauts to the |International Space Station, with crew from NASA, ESA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.
SpaceX has been sending batches of 60 satellites into space to help form its Starlink network, which is already in beta and providing fast internet to rural areas.
Branson and Virgin Galactic are taking a different approach to conquering space. It has repeatedly, and successfully, conducted test flights of the Virgin Galactic’s Unity space plane.
The first took place in December 2018 and the latest on May 22, with the flight accelerating to more than 2,000 miles per hour (Mach 2.7).
More than 600 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin’s space trips. The final tickets are expected to cost $350,000.
Branson has previously said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX.
Richard Branson with the Virgin Galactic craft
SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows – one to the side and one overhead.
The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity.
It climbs to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier craft, White Knight II, once it has passed the 50-mile mark.
Passengers become ‘astronauts’ when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere.
The spaceship will then make a suborbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 1.5 hours.
Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year.
The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable ‘New Shepard’ booster rocket.
At its peak, the capsule reached 65 miles (104 kilometres), just above the official threshold for space and landed vertically seven minutes after liftoff.
Blue Origin are working on New Glenn, the next generation heavy lift rocket, that will compete with the SpaceX Falcon 9.
