{"id":18782,"date":"2017-10-01T18:28:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T10:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/world-view-launches-stratollite-balloon-from-spaceport-tucson-for-the-first-time\/"},"modified":"2017-10-01T18:28:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T10:28:43","slug":"world-view-launches-stratollite-balloon-from-spaceport-tucson-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/world-view-launches-stratollite-balloon-from-spaceport-tucson-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"World View launches \u2018Stratollite\u2019 balloon from Spaceport Tucson for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_366152\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-366152\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-366152\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171001_World-View_013-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Balloon launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171001_World-View_013-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171001_World-View_013-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171001_World-View_013-1260x840.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/171001_World-View_013.jpg 1368w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-366152\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A high-altitude balloon is inflated in preparation for World View\u2019s launch from Spaceport Tucson in Arizona. (World View Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>World View Enterprises today executed its first balloon liftoff from Spaceport Tucson, the Arizona facility that it expects will be the home base for satellite-like \u201cStratollite\u201d missions to the stratosphere \u2014 and, eventually, tourist flights as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpaceport Tucson, the first-ever purpose-built stratospheric launch facility in the world, is now open for business,\u201d World View co-founder and CEO Jane Poynter said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>World View operates the facility on behalf of Arizona\u2019s Pima County, which built the headquarters and production building as well as a 700-foot-wide circular balloon launch pad under the terms of a $15 million deal struck in 2016. That deal has been the subject of legal wrangling for more than a year.<\/p>\n<p>Poynter said the Federal Aviation Administration recently issued a Certificate of Authorization to World View for balloon launches, opening the way for today\u2019s inaugural test.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWorldViewSpaceflight%2Fvideos%2F1452635731493308%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The test\u2019s primary objective was to rehearse mission control protocols for future flights&nbsp;from Spaceport Tucson, located south of Tucson International Airport.<\/p>\n<p>World View already has conducted balloon launches from other testing grounds in Arizona, including NASA-funded experiments and a widely publicized mission that sent a KFC chicken sandwich into the stratosphere in June. But this was the first to take off from the Tucson facility.<\/p>\n<p>The four-year-old company\u2019s balloon-borne platforms can rise to altitudes in excess of 100,000 feet. That\u2019s three times as high as commercial jetliners typically fly, but only a third of the way to the internationally accepted 100-kilometer (328,084-foot) boundary of outer space.<\/p>\n<p>World View aims to offer stratospheric launch services that can offer many of the Earth-monitoring capabilities of satellite missions at a fraction of the cost. The company has a longer-term goal of sending tourists into the stratosphere on hours-long flights that would provide passengers in a pressurized gondola with space-like views of Earth and the black sky above.<\/p>\n<p>The ticket price for World View\u2019s future Voyager flights is $75,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A high-altitude balloon is inflated in preparation for World View\u2019s launch from Spaceport Tucson in Arizona. (World View Photo) World View Enterprises today executed its first balloon liftoff from Spaceport Tucson, the Arizona facility that it expects will be the home base for satellite-like \u201cStratollite\u201d missions to the stratosphere \u2014 and, eventually, tourist flights as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4671,5292,4805,4807],"class_list":["post-18782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-balloon","tag-spaceport-tucson","tag-stratosphere","tag-world-view-enterprises"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}