Space Tourism has faced a setback in the last few months, Space Perspective has closed its doors leaving investors, depositors, and creditors in the lurch.
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Space Perspective’s Space Balloon Concept
With perhaps the most unique and interesting concept for human near space tourism, Space Perspective is the only rocket-alternative that’s been advanced to-date. A capsule would be placed on a specially configured boat off the east coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral. A space balloon taller than the Space Needle in Seattle would be filled, passengers loaded into the capsule, and the balloon flight would carry the capsule on a six-hour flight to 100,000 feet spending two hours climbing, two hours at apogee, and two hours descending.
It’s a gentle, luxurious approach to the model with champagne and canapés at altitude, floor-to-ceiling windows, and even a toilet onboard. The rate of climb and descent was to be just 12 mph, something akin to a bike ride.
Space Perspective Closes Its Doors
In offices onsite and a balloon manufacturing facility next door, Space Perspective operated at the Space Coast Regional Airport, operated by the Titusville Cocoa Airport Authority building its balloons, capsules, and hosting an operations center. But this location was the nail in the coffin as Space Perspective’s eviction coincided with the shut down. At the time, Space Perspective owed $90,295 in unpaid rent to the Brevard county facility.
“Both [investors] have expressed interest, but despite the current circumstances and since Nov./Dec. 2024, they feel that their LPs would not stomach the numbers,”
“The board has at this stage asked that we [pursue] winding down the company, and we have engaged with counsel to do so,” – Michael Savage, Space Perspective Interim CEO” – TLP Network
Progress seemed to be happening along a reasonable timeline with a successful uncrewed test flight in September, 2024 reaching 100,000 feet. Still, cuts had to be made to keep the business aloft.
“Savage outlined the significant steps taken by leadership to reduce costs and keep the company afloat. He, along with co-founders Hunter Abramson and Michael Golomb, voluntarily removed themselves from the company payroll throughout much of 2024 and early 2025, converting their unpaid salaries into equity.
“We truly made the effort,…Myself, Hunter, and Michael opted into flexible pay processes to try and do what we could.” – Interim CEO, Michael Savage – TLP Network
In the end, it wasn’t enough.
Scam, Bad Business, Or Bad Luck?
The lines between scams, bad business management, and bad luck can be paper thin. Promotions for the company included a partnership with Oreos of a space-themed variety, another collaboration was with Maybach Mercedes leaned into the luxury aspect and the $125,000 price tag for the experience. But what does a Maybach have to do with a trip to the edge of space? How does that partnership make sense?
Weeks after the uncrewed flight test, Richard Branson was added as an investor and joined the team adding to the sense that it was headed in the right direction.
“Some of the most magnificent experiences of my life have happened on ballooning expeditions, and I’m excited to support Space Perspective in its journey,” Branson said in an emailed statement today (Oct. 17). “I look forward to dusting off my old ballooning license ahead of some magnificent test flights.” – Space.com
Within five months the doors were locked leaving 1,800 ticket holders out in the cold. The company has not reported any refunds to those ticket holders but I can verify that at least one depositor ($1,000) was not refunded but additionally, they weren’t even informed the business is no longer a going concern.
The company didn’t face any calamities, natural disasters, and it was in the space business – a notoriously difficult industry to enter especially with a new unproven concept. Bad luck can be ruled out, in my opinion.
The divergence in the marketing effort between an under $5 box of cookies complete with “cosmic creme” and a mid-six figure car brand lends to bad business decisions. The company splashed out on an open house at nearby Kennedy Space Center at an event last year. Ultimately, it was Space Perspective’s unpaid rent that brought down the company, court records show, but that was less than $100,000. It’s hard to imagine the event alone cost less than that. That’s not bad luck, the marketing decisions are definitely a case of bad business, but what about the third option?
Theranos started as a good idea: quick blood tests that evaluate for 250+ diseases with a single finger prick at convenient local pharmacies. The problem is, there became a point where Elizabeth Holmes and her executive team became aware the device would never work but continued to deceive investors and manipulate outcomes. That’s when it moved from questionable business practices (investor interest outpacing practical results) to a scam. Space Perspective appeared flashy, appeared on track, all the while it was running out of runway to the extent directors of the company began forgoing their pay. That’s not usually a step that scammers are willing to take. But it’s worth noting that not all senior leadership took the same steps.
A scathing report from Talk of Titusville alleged the budget of the failed company to be 50% marketing and 50% manufacturing and engineering. It includes commentary from former employees that suggest mismanagement, dishonesty with the media, and lavish trips to Dubai and Europe.
This author and site can’t verify any of the information in the Titusville report and generally speaking, former employees who have just been let go are rarely unbiased sources. That said, the absence of communication with ticket holders, and no notice eviction leaves outsiders to draw their own conclusions.
Conclusion
What started as a dream ended as a nightmare. The hope of a sustainable view of space and the earth below from a height so few have been without the use and risk of rockets is something many hope is revisited in the future. Blue Origin’s controversial recent flight lasted just 11 minutes, just a few of those above 100,000 feet before coming back down to earth at an estimated cost of $28MM for the six seats. That will leave space far beyond the bounds of a very limited few for the foreseeable future, but could another company step into a role and develop the model further?
What do you think?
No step back for space tourism, because space was never involved. Just a very high balloon ride.
There’s no clear cut definition of where space begins, but the widest consensus puts it at the Karman line, at 100km. Other definitions put it at 80km. But 100,000 feet are 30km. Under no existing definition this is considered space flight.
So how do you call a plan to sell tickets for space flight, tactfully neglecting to mention that they don’t reach space?
My regrets are for the ticket holders that lost money. Believing in something and having this happen can only be a major disappointment.