FROM PAGE 12

spaceport -- and trips are priced at $50,000 per seat.

The company claims in its press release that “the World View space tourism experience is the most affordable, longest duration and most accessible space experience on Earth.”

Based out of Tuscon, Arizona, and headed up since 2019 by former Insitu CEO Ryan Hartman, World View has ambitious, pan-global plans.

After an Arizona opening for its first spaceport at the Grand Canyon, its next targets are -- in order of projected opening dates -- the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Serengeti in Kenya, the Aurora Borealis in Norway, Amazonia in Brazil, the Giza Pyramids in Egypt and, finally, the Great Wall of China in Mongolia.

These are the locations World View is calling the “Seven Wonders of the World, Stratospheric Edition.”

The idea is that flights will take off from these premium locations and lift eight passengers and two crew members up to 100,000 feet altitude, about four times higher than a standard commercial airplane flight, and nearly 23 miles into the stratosphere.

They’ll zoom on up there in a zero-pressure balloon and pressurized space capsule, which will then gently float in the atmosphere, allowing guests to experience the Earth’s curvature and the awesome darkness of space.

Each trip on board the craft will last six to 12 hours, during which time guests can enjoy the inflight dining and bar and internet data connection, make use of the inflight concierge, check out the Earth-view cameras, star-view telescopes and individual viewing screens, or just chill on the fully reclining seats.

It’s all part of what promises to be a five-day immersive experience during which participants will be offered trips out from the spaceports to explore the local wonders at ground level.

Hartman tells CNN that this might include “helicopter tours, hot-air balloon rides, high-dining experiences and many other excursions.”