Why We Invested in Space Perspective
Creating a life-changing experience at the edge of space.
We are proud to announce that we are leading a financing round for Space Perspective to support their mission of providing travelers the once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing Earth from the edge of space via their proprietary space balloons. 8 passengers will experience a comfortable and luxurious balloon ride in a pressurized capsule, Spaceship Neptune, up to 100,000 feet. Above 99% of the earth’s atmosphere, passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth against the darkness of outer space. It will be the most accessible way for travelers to get a glimpse of what it’s like to leave the earth.
We are thrilled to be backing the founders, Jane and Taber, who have been on the leading edge of making humans a multiplanetary species for over 20 years. Starting in the early 90s, they designed the air, food and water systems for Biosphere 2 — still the most advanced prototype space base ever built and operated. Before Space Perspective, they founded World View, a stratospheric balloon company for unmanned, instrumentation payloads. Jane and Taber were also behind the StratEx project which flew Google executive and Space Perspective board member, Alan Eustace, to a record-breaking 136,000’ under a stratospheric balloon. With Space Perspective, Jane and Taber return to the cause that they are most passionate about: helping people experience the wonder and inspiration of space exploration.
Many astronauts have described the profound experience and shift in perspective from seeing Earth from space — dubbed the Overview Effect.
You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. -Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut
The promise of space tourism is that it will allow tens of thousands and ultimately hundreds of thousands of people to have this truly life-changing experience.
After researching the market deeply and speaking to experts in the industry we came to the conclusion that the suborbital rocket approaches used by companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will never scale to those levels. Riding on a rocket will be an extremely intense, uncomfortable and short experience for passengers. The high g-forces, nausea and risk level will dissuade most non-thrill-seeking customers. What excites us about Space Perspective’s offering is the comfort, luxury and safety of the experience that will make it accessible to a much larger market.
Space Perspective will have their first full-scale test flight in the first half of next year and are scheduled to have their first commercial launch at the end of 2024. Check out their site if you would like to reserve your seat!
Finally, they are hiring for marketing, sales, and engineering roles. Check out their careers page.
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.
