Former PSV converted to floating spaceport sails to Florida

Space tourism company Space Perspective reported its floating spaceport, Voyager, is on its way to Port Canaveral, Florida, following its conversion in southern Louisiana.

A former platform supply vessel (PSV), Voyager will serve as a floating launch and recovery vessel for Spaceship Neptune, a capsule that will accommodate eight passengers and a captain for a space flight to the edge of space. The pressurised capsule will use a giant, hydrogen-filled SpaceBalloon to gently transport passengers—who pay US$125,000 each—on a six-hour roundtrip. Voyager will be based in Florida near the Kennedy Space Center, and used to transport the capsule to an offshore launch site. There, the capsule’s SpaceBalloon will be filled for the spaceflight, which will consist of two hours of ascent, two hours at the flight’s apex and two hours of descent.

Space Perspective says the Spaceship Neptune’s large windows will offer passengers “unprecedented views” from about 20 miles (32 km) above the Earth, all why enjoying a world-class meal, cocktails and the convenience of WiFi. Voyager will recover the capsule following its six-hour flight.

Originally built as a PSV in 1998 by Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), the 90-m Voyager underwent a lengthening and extensive conversion for its new mission at Conrad Deepwater Repair Shipyard in Louisiana. You can learn more about the conversion and floating spaceports in a recent Setting Course podcast, The Future of Offshore Space Support with Space Perspective. During the podcast we talk with Captain Bryan Dietz, master of Space Perspective’s Voyager, and Tyson Breedlove, ABS manager of business development, global offshore.

Space Perspective is aiming to conduct its second demonstration flight this year.