Guice Offshore’s multi-purpose vessel GO America played a key role in the successful splashdown of an innovative spaceballoon test vehicle from Space Perspective, a company that intends to ultimately offer customers “the world’s first luxury spaceflight experience.”
On Friday, June 18, 2021, Space Perspective announced that its Neptune One test vehicle successfully launched from the Space Coast Spaceport near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 5:23 am EDT. The test vehicle reached its planned altitude of 108,409 feet before executing a splashdown at the predetermined location 50 miles off the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, where it was met and successfully recovered by Guice Offshore’s GO America.
“Having served the aerospace industry for many years, Guice Offshore is delighted be part of history in this monumental advancement toward space travel commercialization,” said Guice Offshore Principal Nathan Guice.
With this historic six hour and 39-minute flight, Space Perspective became the first space launch operator to fly from the Space Coast Spaceport.
“I could not be more proud of the performance of the team and the flight system. It was spectacular to witness the teamwork and the high level of expertise yield such a successful result,” said Space Perspective co-CEO and founder Taber MacCallum.
Space Perspective flew a full-size capsule simulator with the same geometry as Spaceship Neptune’s capsule. All primary objectives of the test flight were met. Ultimately, the most important objective was the completion of a full flight demonstration, from prelaunch to recovery.
“It is an incredible privilege launching from the space coast, where the history of human spaceflight was forged over the past decades and continues to build momentum today. Flying on Spaceship Neptune will be an extraordinary experience for our Space Explorers,” said Space Perspective co-CEO and founder Jane Poynter.
“This test flight of Neptune One kicks off our extensive test flight campaign, which will be extremely robust because we can perform tests without a pilot, making Spaceship Neptune an extremely safe way to go to space,” added MacCallum.
“Space Florida congratulates Space Perspective on today’s first test flight of its revolutionary spaceballoon capability, and for being the first space launch operator to fly from the Space Coast Spaceport, Florida’s newest spaceport. This flight highlights the reality of Florida again at the leading edge in space research, tourism, and commercial capabilities. We look forward to the coming milestones for Space Perspective as they prepare to take private citizens to space,” said Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida.
This test flight flew a number of payloads, including:
· Higher Orbits, an educational nonprofit that uses space to promote STEAM by partnering with astronauts and students, flew the winning projects of their recent science project competition for students grades 7-12. One experiment measured the sun’s magnetic field to confirm solar minimum, the time when the sun is least active. A second measured the effects of the space environment on memory materials that are made to hold a particular shape. Their payload also included winners of their current art competition, open to all ages, illustrating Space Perspective’s goal to show that exploring the world we live in and communicating the human experience is possible in ways that engineering and technology cannot.
· University of Northern Florida flew an ozone sensors instrument, developed by Dr. Nirmal Patel and his students’ team in the physics department, to test their innovative atmospheric science technology. This payload demonstrates to research organizations, NASA and other government entities that Spaceship Neptune is a valuable platform for research.
· In addition, two other technical partners, Valispace and International Met Systems Inc., provided engineering and meteorology tools in support of the test flight.
Space Perspective, founded in 2019, was created to make spaceflight more accessible to all, and to provide the thrilling opportunity to see Earth as a planet in space. Spaceship Neptune was developed from the onset for maximum safety, accessibility, near zero-emissions and routine operations around the world. The spaceballoon could hold an entire football stadium when inflated and the pressurized capsule is comfortable and spacious.
Flown by a pilot, Spaceship Neptune transports eight passengers, called “Space Explorers,” on a thrilling six-hour journey to space, along with research payloads. The two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere to 100,000 feet, Spaceship Neptune glides above the Earth for up to two hours allowing passengers to share their experience via social media, with their friends and family. Spaceship Neptune then makes a two-hour descent under the spaceballoon and splashes down, where a ship retrieves the passengers, the capsule, and the spaceballoon. Spaceship Neptune’s commercial human spaceflight launches are regulated by the FAA Office of Commercial Spaceflight.
Visit this link to view the electronic media kit, including leadership headshots, conceptual imagery and video. Images of the flight launch can be found on the Space Perspective media kit and on Space Perspective’s website.
About Space Perspective
Space Perspective is the world’s first luxury spaceflight experience. It invites more people than has historically been possible to experience a thrillingly new and visceral perspective that expands the human consciousness – the incredibly exhilarating panoramas and scale of Earth in space. Our atmosphere stretches for 100s of miles into space, Spaceship Neptune flies above 99% of it.
Setting a new bar in out-of-this-world thrilling experiences, as soon as late 2024 Space Perspective will escort Space Explorers gently to space inside Spaceship Neptune’s pressurized capsule propelled by a high-performance spaceballoon that doesn’t use rocket fuel, where Explorers see the world anew through its vast windows. The ultra-comfortable, accessible and gentle six-hour journey redefines what space and wonder travel means for the modern traveler.
Based out of Kennedy Space Center, Space Perspective is led by industry luminaries Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum, and their expert crew who have been integral to all human spaceballoon flights in the last 50 years. Poynter and MacCallum have been dubbed ‘Masters of the stratosphere,’ by Bloomberg Business Week, and MacCallum served as Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. For more information, visit SpacePerspective.com. Follow Space Perspective on social media for updates, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
About Guice Offshore
Guice Offshore, LLC (“GO”) is a marine vessel transportation company widely considered to be the U.S. Flag leader in the operation of dynamically positioned mini-supply vessels for the “specialty” marketplace. Guice Offshore regularly provides vessel and technical services to a broad spectrum of critical industries like aerospace, documentary and film; oil and gas; government and military; environmental and disaster response and recovery; inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR); science and research; salvage; geotechnical and surveys; and offshore wind and renewable energy. “GO” culture is customer driven with a strong “Can Do” mentality, with clients’ needs being met through a technical approach, enhanced vessel capabilities and experienced crews whose goal is to consistently deliver safe, reliable and cost-effective service.
