World View a step closer to balloon space flight
World View says a successful test flight over the weekend puts it a step closer to commercial balloon flights high enough to see the curvature of the earth and the black of space.
On Saturday, the company launched from Page, Arizona, a working 1/10th scale model of its flight capsule under a huge balloon that traveled to 100,475 feet (30,624 meters), it said Monday. Once there, a system detached the capsule from the balloon to begin a controlled descent to a landing site using a proprietary parafoil, which is something like a steerable parachute.
The systems had been tested before, but the weekend flight was the first time all had been combined into a single flight that mirrored the proposed commercial service from launch to landing.
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