MS Voyager ship in Fort Pierce port will launch passengers to edge of space in Neptune

Space Perspective is conducting research and development in Fort Pierce for about a year before sending people to the edge of space in a capsule propelled by a hydrogen balloon, Marine Fleet Manager Spencer King told TCPalm.

Spaceship Neptune will be launched and retrieved from the MS Voyager, a 294-foot-long ship that arrived in Fort Pierce on July 14 and was at the Beyel Brothers pier on Wednesday along with a prototype of the capsule.

Passengers will go 100,000 feet above the Earth's surface to the stratosphere, which is the second-lowest layer of our atmosphere. That's about three times higher than the average cruising altitude of a typical airplane.

Flights are expected to begin in 2025 and cost $125,000 per person or $1 million to book all eight seats on the spaceship, according to Space Perspective.

Here's what we know about MS Voyager, Space Perspective and Spaceship Neptune:

What is Voyager?

• MS Voyager joined Space Perspective's fleet in 2022. MS Voyager was acquired from Edison Chouest Offshore, a marine transportation company, and refurbished by Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana.
• It is named MS Voyager after NASA's Voyager 1 Space Probe mission, which took a photo of Earth from across the solar system on Feb. 14, 1990.
• The ship's home base is Port Canaveral.

What is Spaceship Neptune?

Spaceship Neptune has three components: the SpaceBalloon, the capsule and the reserve descent system.

• SpaceBalloon: Lifts the capsule into the air using renewable hydrogen to take flight. It's 700 feet tall.
• Capsule: Carries up to nine people, including eight passengers and a captain. Offers panoramic views from the largest windows ever flown into space. 16-foot-diameter. Over 2,000 cubic feet of pressurized volume.
• Reserve descent system : Holds four parachutes between the capsule and the SpaceBalloon to take over as part of Space Perspective's contingency plan for a safe landing.

Spaceship Neptune's journey begins at sea, where it is released from the MS Voyager and ascends into space at 12 mph, before reaching 100,000 feet above the Earth's surface. It then descends slowly to land in the ocean, where fast boats will arrive to stabilize the capsule to lift it back onto MS Voyager.

The journey will last about six hours from takeoff to landing.

What is Space Perspective?

The company is based in Titusville and was founded by Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum in 2019.

About 1,750 people have reserved seats on Spaceship Neptune, and the company anticipates 4,000 reservations by the end of the year, according to a February news release.

Gianna Montesano is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com , 772-409-1429, or follow her on Twitter @gonthescene .

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: MS Voyager ship in Fort Pierce port will launch passengers to edge of space in Neptune