The French company Zephalto has announced that it will offer a Michelin-like dinner experience “on the edge of space” for the first time in late 2024, as reported by CNN. The exclusive flights will have capacity for up to six travelers and will rise to an altitude of 25 kilometers, promising a unique view of Earth.
Pre-booking tickets are already available and are priced at around 10,900 USD (10,000 euros). This will allow interested parties the possibility to reserve a seat when tickets go on sale. A trip inside Celeste, as the module hanging under the balloon is called, costs 120,000 euros per person. The Celeste capsule will soar 25 kilometers above the earth’s surface, offering a spectacular view of the earth’s curvature.
The view and overall journey remains the central focus of the offering.
Vincent Farret d’Astiès, Zephalto’s founder
Despite the high price tag, seats on board the first flights that will take off from the end of 2024 to mid-2025 are already sold out, according to CNN. Zephalto is now selling seats from mid-2025 and for the following years.
The trips begin at its spaceport in France, where guests will arrive a few days before their scheduled flight to familiarize themselves with the process and attend some exclusive events. On the day of the flight, six guests will board the pod and soar through the air at a speed of 4 meters per second until they reach an altitude of about 25 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Vincent Farret d’Astiès, Zephalto’s founder, explained to Bloomberg that this altitude was chosen on purpose.
“We chose this height because it’s the altitude at which you are in the darkness of space, with 98 percent of the atmosphere below you, so you can appreciate the curve of the Earth in the blue line,” Farret d’Astiès told Bloomberg. “You are in the darkness of space, but without the experience of weightlessness.”
The tour will last six hours, half of which will be spent just on the ascent and descent of the aircraft. Travelers will be accommodated in a pressurized cabin, and meals will be served on site.
Farret d’Astiès, a former air traffic controller, founded Zephalto in 2016. He told CNN Travel that while Celeste’s food and beverage options will be luxurious, “the view and overall journey remains the central focus of the offering, allowing guests to appreciate and take in the beauty of their surroundings.”
According to CNN, capsules such as Celeste don’t reach suborbital space. They do however fly higher than an average commercial airplane. To the chagrin of many enthusiasts, there will not be any loss of gravity or feeling of weightlessness. Some of them have already expressed their disappointment on social media. “At that altitude, gravity isn’t noticeably different to on earth. I would want zero-gravity for the €120,000 price tag,” tweeted user Lukas Ohl.
