To get things into orbit at the moment , you require a pretty cock-a-hoop rocket . While companies like SpaceX are endeavor to bring down the cost of launching by making their rocketsreusable , the engineering is still too expensive for some .
possibly , though , there ’s another way . That ’s what Spanish company Zero 2 Infinity is reckon on , as it ’s been educate a system to launch minuscule loading into celestial orbit from a balloon . Earlier this month , it perform the first ever rocket launching from a stratospheric balloon .
On March 1 ( inside information have only just been release ) , the company released a high - height balloon from a gravy holder off the Spanish coast , with a little prototype launcher called Bloostar attach underneath . At a height of 25 km ( 16 mi ) , a quarter of the room to the prescribed boundary of space , the launcher ignited its locomotive engine and flew into the stratosphere .
A gif of the launch on March 1 , 2017 . Zero 2 Infinity
This paradigm was little , and it re - enter the atmosphere and landed in the ocean via chute not long after . But the ship’s company is hop that , in the futurity , they can utilise this same technology to launch experimentation and microsatellites into orbit for a pocket-sized cost .
“ This patented proficiency is less risky than any system used until now , ” Zero 2 Infinity said in astatement . “ The garden rocket - powered form starts already from above 95 percent of the mass of the atmosphere , getting there with no polluting emissions . ”
The society ’s ultimate goal for Bloostar is to make a great edition that can carry small-scale satellitesto orbit , impart in a covered nose cone at its front . It will be a three - stage fomite , with two ring of engines igniting in sequence to get the load to orbit . They desire to test this for the first timein 2018 .
Blooster is intended to eventually take payloads into orbit . Zero 2 Infinity
Alongside Bloostar , Zero 2 Infinity is also working onBloon , a people - carrying capsule that will also be loft into the stratosphere by a balloon . They ’ve perform several remote-controlled prototype mental testing so far , but eventually they want to take up to six people ( four passengers and two pilot program ) on flights to an EL of 36 kilometer ( 22 mi ) .
The ascent would take two hour , with a further two hour expend float at this altitude , before Bloon hold its way back down via a steerable parachute . Another party , calledWorld View Enterprises , is working on like technology .
The test of Bloostar was impressive enough for now , though . They in all probability wo n’t be causing Elon Musk any sleepless nights any time before long , but they might just give universities and research organization a way to station experiments and satellites into reach for a relatively low cost ( a spokesperson for the company told IFLScience they were aiming for half the price of their competitors ) .
