Featured Prime Mover: Space Perspective’s Jane Poynter
This month, Prime Movers Lab sat down with Space Perspective Founder, Co-CEO, and CXO Jane Poynter to discuss the lessons learned from Biosphere 2, the future of human spaceflight, and how seeing Earth from a new perspective can change humanity. Read more about Jane’s unique journey below. You can also reserve your life-changing trip to the edge of space aboard Spaceship Neptune here.
Can you tell me a bit about your background?
My career in spaceflight started when I was part of Biosphere 2, which was a science research facility in Arizona that was built to be an artificial ecological system. I, along with my seven other crewmates, sought to understand how humans could live in closed biospheres in extraterrestrial environments during our two years (1991–1993) living inside this materially closed ecological system that was essentially a space base prototype.
Since then, I and Space Perspective Founder and Co-CEO Taber MacCallum, who I met in Biosphere 2, have founded several companies, including Paragon Space Development Corporation, which develops technologies for extreme environments like outer space and has technologies on every U.S. human spacecraft in operation including the International Space Station.
In October 2014, we broke Felix Baumgartner’s 2012 Red Bull Stratos space jump world record by taking then Google executive, and now Space Perspective founding board member, Alan Eustace to 136,000 feet in a spacesuit designed by our team. We intentionally dropped Alan from a SpaceBalloon, and he fell for nearly five minutes, breaking the speed of sound, before opening his parachute at around 12,000 feet for a safe landing.
From there, Taber and I created Space Perspective — the world’s first and only carbon-neutral spaceflight experience company. Our mission is to share the transformative power of space travel with the world. We do that by offering a safe and accessible six-hour journey to space in Spaceship Neptune, which is comprised of a pressurized capsule propelled gently by a Space Balloon™ the size of a football stadium and features a Space Lounge with a bar. There are no heavy g-forces or training required; it is as easy as boarding an airplane.
What lessons did you learn about supporting and maintaining human life in outer space during your time as a Biosphere 2 team member?
I gained a perspective on how interconnected life on Earth really is. I knew from moment to moment that the oxygen I was breathing came from the plants around me and the CO2 I was exhaling fed them to provide the food I was eating. Understanding that connection between all things and the balance you need to achieve and maintain has informed a lot of my work since.
What inspired you to found Space Perspective?
Having that visceral experience in the Biosphere was life-changing for me. I could see the edges of our own enclosed world, much like the way astronauts experience seeing the thin blue line of our atmosphere from space. So Taber and I thought, let’s bring people up to have that quintessential astronaut experience of seeing Earth from the blackness of space and create that big perspective shift on how we view our vulnerable planet and each other, as humanity. Astronauts often return with a fire inside them — they tend to become involved in environmental and societal causes. Some call this the overview effect; we call it the Space Perspective. We hope Space Perspective will offer all of humanity an opportunity to appreciate our planet more profoundly — especially in these times — and that we are one human family. With thousands of people going in Spaceship Neptune and having this profound experience, it will have a positive impact right here on Earth.
Why do you think you are seeing such a strong interest in human spaceflight right now?
Space is much more present in our lives than it has been in the past. NASA’s Artemis launch was a major milestone. The European Space Agency will send its JUICE mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moons. Virgin Galactic just had a successful commercial launch.
Now, we are completely reimagining spaceflight and working to make it more accessible than ever before by removing barriers — eliminating the extreme physical impact of a rocket launch and g-forces, bringing down the cost, etc. We are offering a spaceflight experience that’s gentle on our explorers and on our planet. Space is in reach, people are racing to be a part of it, and we are uniquely positioned to scale as this market continues to grow.
What makes working with Prime Movers Lab so unique?
We see Prime Movers Lab as a critical part of our team. They are so deeply committed to our mission, the impact at scale that our experience will have, and our shared success. The level of support, advice, and strategic thinking we have access to because of our partnership really is next level. We’re thrilled to have them as strong partners on this journey.
What was the least expected challenge you’ve overcome to reach this point?
We started Space Perspective in 2019, right before the pandemic. We built the company throughout those challenging years into what it is today, a company poised to reach commercialization very soon.
Who inspires you?
Our team at Space Perspective inspires me every day. They are the most incredibly talented and dedicated individuals working to take us all to space to have the incredible experience that astronauts have and return to do something magnificent here on Earth.
Have you read anything lately that inspired you?
I re-read Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot recently and was reminded of his iconic message to us all that is needed now more than ever. His writing was inspired by the image of Earth taken by the Voyager spacecraft as it reached the edge of our solar system, a tiny dot. “The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and preserve and cherish the Pale Blue Dot, the only home we have ever known.”
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
