London, United Kingdom

British industrial design office PriestmanGoode is working with the new startup, U.S.-based Space Perspective on Spaceship Neptune, a high-performance balloon and pressurized capsule that will carry passengers and research payloads to the edge of space.

Nigel Goode, Designer and Co-Founder of PriestmanGoode states: “We’ve worked in close partnership with the team behind Space Perspective for many years now.

“Neptune is a great project to work on, it’s the culmination of a long-term collaboration that has resulted in the only spaceship that is designed with the human experience at its core and will pave the way for the future of commercial space travel.”

The capsule has been designed from the inside out. The starting point was the passenger experience.

PriestmanGoode looked at all the different elements that would make the experience not just memorable, but truly comfortable as well and included essentials for a journey of six hours, like a lavatory.

The designers wanted to make sure that passengers would be able to get 360-degree unobstructed views and that they created an efficient space that would enable them to move around during the journey.

Meanwhile, they needed to minimize weight and create a highly functional environment for the pilot. All these elements guided the shape of the final capsule.

Flown by a pilot, Neptune will take up to eight passengers called “Explorers” on a six-hour journey to the edge of space and safely back, where only 20 people have been before.

t will carry people and research payloads on a two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere to 100,000 feet, where it cruises above the Earth for up to two hours allowing passengers to share their experience via social media and with their fellow Explorers.

Neptune then makes a two-hour descent under the balloon and splashes down, where a ship retrieves the passengers, the capsule, and the balloon.

“The design of the capsule is a critical component of providing our Explorers the inspirational experience that Astronauts describe of seeing our Earth in space,” said Jane Poynter, Founder and Co-CEO of Space Perspective.

“Space Perspective is developing a uniquely accessible space travel experience, said Taber MacCallum, Founder and Co-CEO of Space Perspective.

“The designers worked with us to create that experience with Spaceship Neptune, giving it an off-world yet classic design, while meeting a wide range of human factors, engineering, manufacturing and operating requirements.”

The first uncrewed test flight will include a suite of research payloads and is scheduled for early 2021 from the iconic Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, USA.

Designers: PriestmanGoode
Client: Space Perspective