World View, a company offering travelers the chance to experience a trip to the edge of space, announced it hit the milestone of 1,000 reservations for its program. President and CEO Ryan Harman joined Cheddar News to talk about how its customers will be taking off from planned spaceport sites where they'll immerse themselves in the local environment and history before taking off into space. "You're experiencing the curvature of the Earth. You're experiencing the darkness of space, being able to see the stars during broad daylight, and so that's our approach is to make sure that customers are experiencing being able to view our Earth from the edge of space," he said.

Closing Bell

World View Says It's Reached 1,000 Space Tourism Reservations

space tourism is soaring in popularity with companies like Blue origin and virgin galactic setting. People out of this world. But one company is looking to fly away from the competition. World view a stratospheric ballooning and space tourism company says it has reached 1000 reservations for its space Tourism program taking guests of course to the edge of space. During us. Now is Ryan Hartman, Ceo of Worldview and Ryan. Could you first tell us to take us through what a worldview flight experience is like? Yeah, well it all starts with the seven wonders of the world stratospheric edition. So as you mentioned the Grand Canyon, great barrier reef places like the amazon jungle, the Serengeti, the Giza pyramids. So customers get to spend some time getting to know those areas immersing themselves in the beauty of those areas immersing themselves in the fertility of the planet. And then before sunrise they're going to rise to about 100,000 ft where they can then take in the beauty of that area that they just explored and then they'll come back down to earth and we'll get to spend some time with them talking about their experiences and what they can do to help contribute to a to radically improve future for our planet. So let's let's say I'm a guest, I go to the Grand Canyon. I go into the balloon and then I go up, we hover kind of over the Grand Canyon. But when do you take me to space? When does that happen in that time? Well, well so where we're going you get to experience all that is space alright. You're experiencing the curvature of the Earth, you're experiencing the darkness of space, being able to see the stars during broad daylight. And so that's our approach is to make sure that customers are experiencing being able to view our earth from the edge of space, which delivers a very unique experience for them and when it comes to time, how long does it take from liftoff to touchdown? So the fights are designed to be 6-8 hours long. It's about a 1990 minute ascent to uh 100,000 ft. Uh then you'll spend several hours there before taking a couple hour ride back down to the surface of the Earth. Now I'm afraid to ask because this looks super high tech. The video that we're seeing now one of the biggest I guess gates of getting into space travel is of course the price that doesn't look cheap. So how much does it take to be one of the guests on these balloons? Yeah, it was uh $50,000 for the ride itself. So a fraction of what it costs anywhere else? Which is a bargain which is funny to say it's like a bargain now compared to the quarter million or half a million dollars that usually costs. And what does that get you? The 50 grand? Well that 50 grand gets you that full flight um and gets you to the spaceport where you'll be able to to participate in different kinds of excursions, you know, like spaceport Grand Canyon as an example. Being able to visit the Grand Canyon, go on hikes in the Grand Canyon. Uh, you know, go to antelope Canyon, go to the Horseshoe Bend, maybe even go to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Nation and sit down with leaders there and understand from them, you know, the fragility of the earth, the history of the area and those kinds of things. So I'm looking at the video now and I'm not alone on this balloon. How many people can fit in? What kind of amenities are up there? I mean, is there wifi? Tell me about it. Yeah. So it's uh, you and seven other people. So 88 customers total with two crew. Uh, there's going to be broad band, so you can be connected to the ground. Uh, there will be a telescope so you can be looking at the, at the stars while you're on your trip and there will be a camera with screen so that you can zoom into areas and understand what you're looking at Now when it comes to landing, you're taking off at one of these big wonders. But where are you landing? Essentially you like, am I going from, let's say the pyramids to the Grand Canyon? Or am I going from the Grand Canyon landing somewhere that's kind of isolated. No, you're, you're taking off from our spaceport Grand Canyon, you'll travel, you know, approximately 100 miles away from the Grand Canyon and then you'll land at one of our predetermined landing site. So we have six landing sites from Spaceport Grand Canyon. So you'll go to one of those and then you'll be picked up by helicopter and transported back to the launch spot. Now I understand you're not using this technology just for tourism. You actually have some partnerships. So tell me about it and how this is going to help, I guess propel us us as a species understanding and taking more advantage of space. Well, so we have two sides of our business and both of them are designed around why we exist as a business and that is that we exist to inspire, create and explore new perspectives for radically improved future. So we have a business around remote sensing where we're using the same technology to take pictures and collect data about our earth, about the atmosphere, uh, and provide new insights into the planet and and the, the atmosphere. And then using the same technology to take people to the edge of space so that they can experience something very unique from viewing the Earth on high as well. So how soon can people start floating up to space? And where do they go? They wanna head there? Yeah, well, we started our ticket sales last october and we sold out spaceport Grand Canyon already. So we sold um, as of this morning 1000 39 tickets um selling about a little more than one a day. Um and uh and so that means if you want to fly out of Spaceport, Grand Canyon are gonna have to wait till 2025 we are going to be starting operations out of Spaceport, Great barrier reef in Queensland Australia and the latter part of 2024. And that's not yet sold out. So people go to worldview dot space www dot worldview dot space. And uh and book their ticket now. Alright. My last, I was supposed to my last question but I have one more. So is this sustainable? And how many fleets of balloons do you have? Yeah, that's a great question. So yes, it is sustainable. And so for us it's when we think about why we exist and contributing to radically improved future, we're thinking through the long tail of everything that we're doing. And so, you know, with our with our balloons uh we're designing things like greenhouses to be able to use the balloon material that you see behind me and make greenhouses to grow, to grow a tree saplings and things like that. And then also, you know, focusing on the creation of textiles and building bricks and those kinds of things. Also that we are a net consumer of carbon. But in addition to that uh we're we're handling more waste than we're producing. Okay, how many, how many balloons do you have right now? Well uh, well, we build about one a week right now. Um, so yeah, and that, that will just be going up from here. I like that Ryan Harvin Ceo of Worldview, Ryan, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing this incredible, incredible experience people can have.