23 How to Travel to Space and Learn About Spaceflight Now? #spaceexploration

23 How to Travel to Space and Learn About Spaceflight Now? #spaceexploration

ciao ni yasu bonjour good my name is Lydia and I’m your host of the Global Travel junkie podcast where we’ll discover new luxury destinations and experiences together so let’s get started and meet today’s guest hi everyone it’s Lydia with the Global Travel junkie podcast and YouTube channel today our episode is literally out of this world I’m so excited to be sitting here with Carl hi Carl hey Lydia how are you I’m doing great I’m doing great I can’t wait to tell the audience what we’re gonna talk about today and you are you guys are not gonna believe this conversation because I am barely believing that I’m having this conversation so where are you today Carl where are we talking to you from I’m in Toronto so Canada um but I represent Signature Travel network so I’m the vice president of exploration for Signature Travel network and we are a network of 15,000 travel advisers and what we’re going to talk about today and you’ll see it on Lydia’s background and on excuse me my background is a company that has partnered exclusively with us called space perspective and they are all about space exploration and bringing it to the public yeah that’s exciting and so I have a special little treat I don’t know Carl we just got to know each other a little bit before we started recording this episode but I brought a special Show and Tell for you guys in the audience and actually for Carl too so watch out look what I have here y’all know that do you know that the Apollo 7 mission was the first manned spacecraft um Venture for the Apollo series and this right here let me get it in camera is a ash a real astronaut’s helmet okay I’m gonna show y’all this is Walt cting Ham’s hat hard hat I’m going to show y’all look what it looks like it’s his hard hat from walking around NASA it has his name printed on it and before he passed away I emailed him he lived in Houston where I live I liveed near NASA um this is a virtual background but if y’all can see he signed the inside of this hat in the 80s for my father and this is a real blue astronaut Apollo 7 helmet and that’s fantastic Isn’t that cool and it’s available for anyone for the right price well I didn’t know you were a space nerd when we decided we were going to do this wonderful I know like but wait I’ve got to tell you the most amazing thing I started researching that hat um after my father passed away and it came into our family and I researched it and you are not going to believe I mean here I am the one holding this hat and the Apollo 7 launch was again the first successful manned spacecraft there were three you know Walter another Walt and then um I forgot the other guy’s name I just asked Alexa this morning but they they launched on October 11th 1968 the day that I was born no the day he was going out of this world I was coming into this world it was just the most amazing like connection for me and so I just wanted to share that because I think it’s a neat like sometimes the world brings you people the the universe brings you people and connections and what we’re going to talk about today with space perspective is that they’re still needing to launch their first manned spacecraft and so um it’s just kind of exciting to have this conversation with Carl today so we’re gonna start the podcast by asking Carl I’m gonna ask him to introduce himself and like how he’s connected and then we’re GNA dig a deeper into what is space tourism and how can we be a part of it well as I said yeah my name is is Carl Canter and I’m the VP of exploration for Signature Travel network a network of 15,000 travel advisers all based in the US and we have a special relationship with space perspective as we are the only uh consorti or network of travel advisers that they have chosen to work with uh as a preferred partner so it’s our pleasure to try and help space perspective get the word out certainly to our members our the 15,000 travel advisers in our Network and educating them and helping them understand what the product is so that they in turn can tell their clients and you know your story about connection it’s really interesting that you mentioned that because when I met my wife one of the first things she told me was that she’s a bit of a space nerd she uh was in space camp for a while uh went to Florida to see a couple of shuttle launches all of which fascinates me and I haven’t done any of that yet but then uh we have an 11-year-old son and the eclipse that went through North America in early April on the 8th of April we took a chance and we took the train from Toronto to Montreal spent a night in Montreal rented a car drove to the Eastern townships about an hour and a half two hours east and south of Montreal right into the path of totality found a little ski resort that wasn’t doing anything else they charged 20 bucks to take take the lift up to go to the top and we had perfect perfect perfect conditions I know there were people that traveled all over North America and and you know probably at Great expense both time and and uh financially and unfortunately didn’t have optimal conditions we knew it was a crapshoot but we got very very lucky and so now the three of us are are fully vested again into this whole notion of um you know space travel but also just astronomy and and um astronomical phenomenon those sorts of things we’re thinking about where the next eclipse is or where we should go in order to see the next one we’re thinking Egypt in 2027 U and then when I started with signature 14 months ago and I very quickly realized that one of the preferred Partners was space perspective and they’re one of the first phone calls I made I wanted to reach out to the the business development managers there and find out what is this product what is this incredible opportunity that you’re offering to people that want to explore space civilians that want to explore space people regular people and how are you doing it differently than some of the others and that’s what became evident right away is is space perspective is unique in what is currently being offered yeah that’s wonderful so let’s dive into some just gener I mean I’m going to ask the most general questions that are out there so I mean literally has are is there anybody who’s taking you and me to space right now is there anybody doing this well there are some companies that are doing it and you hear about it periodically when a celebrity goes up you know uh William Shatner went with one of the companies offering it but those companies that operate now there’s a lot of training involved there’s a great commitment of time and resources because you do have to go through a version of Astronaut training because it’s the traditional way of of breaking through Earth’s atmosphere and and getting uh into space in that it’s it’s a rocket and so the training that goes along with that and the training of what it will be like to be weightless so and and also at significant expense so a lot of commitment in terms of time and resources and what have you and physical fitness what’s unique about what space perspective are doing is they’re using old technology technology that’s been around for a very very long time with a very contemporary very modern spin on it uh using a hydrogen balloon to slowly lift you into space over the course of two hours so from the time you launch uh initially it’ll be from the space coast in Florida launching from there slowly wafting up at I believe it’s 12 miles an hour two hours no part of the journey slowly slowly wafting up to get to 100,000 feet so about three times as high as commercial aircraft fly from there you can see the curvature of the earth and they don’t spend minutes there they spend two hours at that altitude so where you can see the curvature of the earth and have a cocktail and have a drink and record a message to your family or to Future generations of your family and and take a few selfies take a couple of selfies of course and and experience the moment be in the moment and realize where you are and the unique perspective that you have on the world and you know almost every astronaut every interviewed who comes back from having had that experience of seeing Earth from that unique perspective talks about the fragility of Earth and how beautiful the planet looks from that perspective and they all seem to take on this idea of we really need to do what we can to Pres preserve life on on Earth and what can we do in terms of preservation and conservation and things like that so it it truly moves people and changes many people who have that perspective so again space perspective is unique in the sense that it’s not a rocket uh it’s it’s this old technology that is still used by NASA uh not everything that NASA and and others take into space is um do they use a rocket to get that that material material that uh weather balloon or or excuse me that that weather satellite it doesn’t always go up by rocket it’s expensive so if they don’t have to go quite that high and clear Earth’s atmosphere and get into orbit they will use balloons and and they have been using them you know for 50 or 60 years so this is just expanding and and um bettering that technology and making it safe for for human travel and what we were talking about um that feeling of just the slow lift it’s almost like just imagine like an analogy would be like being in a hot air balloon that just in but inside of an enclosed capsule that just keeps going and doesn’t stop until you get to 100,000 feet and then like you said you stay there for two hours there’s food and Cocktails but also that alternative option that’s out there is like only a few minutes you know it’s an explosion of a rocket that’s going out to space you hang out for a minute or two right I mean you can just watch it on video like what that experience is and then you come back down so that’s a that’s a big bang for not a lot of Buck Right not a lot of meat in there no I no pun intended you know um yeah and and again that’s the the biggest intention behind space perspective is to make it more readily available to more people uh because those those existing Technologies the those you know taking all of that training and getting into a traditional rocket it’s the playground of the very very few so they’re they’re hoping to democratize this a little bit more and make it available to even more people in and in other parts of the world as well and the last thing I I just wanted to say on that we talked about going up for two hours and spending two hours there we didn’t talk about coming down um that’s important right that’s important we got things to do we got people to see well and we don’t want to stay up there indefinitely so uh gentle 12 M hour uh like being in a hot air balloon that’s ex that’s the exact analogy spending two hours there to really take the time to appreciate where you are and be in the moment be in this experience and then gently wafting down two hours again so a total experience of six hours you know let’s talk about this how many people out there are wondering about the safety Factor so you and I were talking because I had a few questions of my own before we got started just to see how this was going to play out and so I was impressed with what you said about to me about all the safety features so tell me a little bit about for those who are kind of curious like a balloon in space like what are all the things they’re doing to make sure that it’s safe so the first thing I think to understand is that space perspective are not doing this in a vacuum they’re not doing this alone they have partnered with and and SE seek the guidance and counsel of the FAA NASA uh the Coast Guard and some of the contractors that Nasa uses for some of the equipment that they have whether that’s Telemetry equipment or things like that so they’ve partnered with the top federal agencies and the top private corporations in the world to make sure again that they’re not operating in a vacuum they want to make sure that they’re being pushed and and asked the difficult questions about Safety and Security so specifically on that um you know the capsule that they’ve designed for example one of the first questions was given that The Landings are in water the ocean so you’ll take off in this case when when they first start out you’ll take off from Land the Space Coast in Florida H rise for two hours have that two-hour experience and slow to descend for two hours into the ocean where there’s a chase boat uh that’s coming after you and is able to lift the capsule out of the water Etc how do we ensure that the capsule sits in the water in such a way that it doesn’t tip over and make everybody uncomfortable or some people will be you know feeling like they’re laying down and looking up at other people who are strapped in and looking down at them and wondering if they’re going to fall on them they need to make sure that the capsule sits upright in the water when it lands and so there was a great deal of engineering and design and technology that went into coming up with the right design of the capsule so that it will function that way so that’s just one example uh you know redundancies in terms of um the piloting and the navigation uh of the of the capsule itself so there is a pilot of course a highly skilled highly trained pilot but if something were to go arai U the captain becomes ill or something like that they shouldn’t it’s only six hours but you never know Mission Control has complete control they can take over controls at any time but so the question may be asked well why why send a a pilot up at all everyone’s going to feel more comfortable with a pilot you know even when we get fully autonomous cars uh are people going to be comfortable with a fully autonomous taxi without a taxi driver in there or an Uber driver so you know I think the pilot obviously is a is a good idea but mission control control excuse me can take over if they need to every aspect of of the flight yeah that’s wonderful what is driving the interest in space tourism right now I think it’s you know pardon the pun or or the reference to pop culture but it’s the final frontier you know it’s opening that up to the public Expedition cruising and and that’s some of my background is experiencing a huge um explosion in popularity now and you know we liken it to where River cruising was 20 years ago River cruising was not new 20 years ago there had been small ships small boats on the rivers in Europe for a long time you know all through the the 20th century or large part of it but it was after Ocean cruising was sort of introduced and we all remember watching the loveboat as kids and that introduced the idea of cruising to people and cruising became very very popular and then Cruisers or the general public were looking for something new something different and River cruising which had been around already but really got pushed to the four um oh that’s interesting so people who were traditionally motion sickness or said motion sick um I’m never going to take a cruise because I’m I’m very susceptible to movement on the water and and susceptible to motion sickness River cruising solves that problem people that want to see the interior the heartland of some of these countries in Europe River cring cruising solved that problem so here was a product that had existed but now was marketing it differently and perhaps updating and upgrading the hardware and making it more appealing to people I think that’s what’s happening now as well with space tourism uh people are moving away from you know the luxury I think was defined by owning things um and plating everything you owned in gold you know I think about uh a popular image from probably 20 years ago of the interior of uh one of Donald Trump’s homes and it was everything was gold and that was what was considered opulent and that was luxury and luxury now is experiences collecting experiences um and and having time with family you know one of the things that space perspective anticipates is that entire families will buy out a capsule of eight or a group of friends will buy out capsule of eight people and do it together as an experience um there is um there’s a product now out there where there’s a celebrity chef that’s going up and the celebrity chef will prepare a meal in space for a group of people so again it’s always coming up with these new and and unique and interesting experiences so I think that’s what’s driving it yeah that’s awesome so we talked about the logistics of like getting up there and hanging out for two hours and coming down let’s talk about when you’re in the capsule and you’re going up I know there’s a beautiful environment inside there and there’s some amenities right so let’s talk about like what’s it like to get in the capsule and go up there like what are you g to experience once you’re sitting there for four hours or six hours right well you know again unlike the space program and some of those images we have in our heads of of three astronauts crammed into this cramped little space and bent over in an an uncomfortable position and and even some of the space exploration products that exist now it’s somewhat similar because you’re limited in terms of the size of the capsule so everybody sitting shoulder Tosh shoulder elbow to Elbow elbow jammed into a tiny tiny little space the capsule is very very spacious um the seats look like uh you know a recliner they’re very very comfortable able they’ve been designed to sort of recline and I I think allow people to get as much of a beautiful view as much of the time as possible and then upon reaching altitude you can get up and walk around you’re not in weightlessness you still have gravity so you’re not strapped in for six hours you can get up and walk around and take that cocktail that the host or Hostess has prepared for you and walk around and and film a video to your future self or to Future generations of your family um you know with the backdrop of the curvature of the earth and and you’re you’ve got a Martini in your hand uh doing that sort of thing so yeah you guests will be able to get up and move around and enjoy a cocktail there is a bathroom on board uh because six hours might be too long to go without access so there’s a bathroom on board as well there’s a host or Hostess and the pilot so it’s meant to be very very comfortable and uh you know in terms of access and people who may be a able to do this again there’s no training involved like there would be with the products that are available now uh and going through that form of of Astronaut training if you can board a commercial aircraft if you can take a cruise you can do this so I’m you know I know that there will be a health questionnaire that you’ll have to fill out and perhaps even have it signed off by your doctor but if you’re well enough to travel commercially in a commercial aircraft or sale on a cruise ship you’re well enough to do this that’s great that’s great now I’m sure people are excited and they want to learn more where would they go to find more information and possibly get on some kind of an email list so that they can be notified when you start booking that or do you want to talk about that a little bit yeah yeah of course U and just in terms of the the windows so we’re talking in in uh you know the second quarter of 2024 the first test flights are meant to happen this year and they hope that the first commercial flights will happen by the end of 2024 in terms of finding out more and keeping being kept uh um in the know you can go to signatur trvel network.com find a travel advisor that works within our Network and again we are um space perspective is a preferred part pref preferred partner of our Network um so reach out to a travel adviser within our Network and they will make sure that you have that information alternatively go to space perspectives website and learn more there uh but I think you know working with an adviser and today is uh travel advisor day National travel adviser day wow yeah so it’s always a good idea because they will make sure that you’ve got the best information the right information put you in touch with the right people if you’ve got more questions they will be able to track down the answers for you and get the uh get that information to you so I think that’s that’s probably the best way to go about doing it well and I heard on another video that y’all had already booked over 1700 spots that had already been taken so we were talking about where you can’t even get on a spacecraft once they start until what year was it that you said they’re already booking into I think they’re booking into 2029 and you know there’s there isn’t an exact science in terms of the dates because a launch is going to be very very dependent on weather as you can imagine but you know if they schedule one a week let’s say if space perspective have it in their plans to do one a week and they can take eight people at a time and there are 1,700 people that have put down deposit so far do the math yeah now one way to get around that and and coming back to to Signature Travel network we have some agencies that have pre purchased account capsule uh you know a a launch and they’ve purchased or put deposits down on on you want to be the first right right right now they may have already sold some of them but one agency I know is holding one capsule another agency is holding two capsules and because they put the deposits down some time ago I want to say even more than a year ago they are going to be among the first to launch not in 2029 more likely in 25 yeah so yeah if if you called up now and you were new to it and and you were just booking a space on the next available it may well be 2029 okay now I don’t know the answer this question but are y’all the exclusive partner the only way you can book travel with the space perspective no you’re we’re not you could certainly book directly but again I I think working with a travel advisor in the Signature Travel network they will help put the whole package together because it’s going to involve getting to for getting up to the Space Coast accommodations then the the launch itself the retrieval is uh at Sea so once this capsule lands they retrieve it bring the capsule yeah it’s not just it’s when it’s over it’s not a matter of opening the capsule door and whistling for an Uber and jumping in the Uber and going to the airport it’s going to take a little bit longer than that so there you know you want to bookend this thing and make sure that it’s it’s done properly and build in some time and coming back to what I was saying about launch Windows and and them being highly weather dependent you also are going to have to have some flexibility where your accommodations pre- and post are concerned and where your flights are concerned so again could you go to space perspective and book independently absolutely but then you’re responsible for your flights for the transfers for your accommodation when you’re work with an adviser they will put that whole they’ll bundle that entire package together and they will help and make sure that all of those pieces fall together especially when things don’t go according to plan yeah it’s like having a coner to take care of you absolutely yeah and in this in this regard I think that’s an important piece of everything is there anything that we haven’t touched on about this whole experience that you feel like needs to be said or mentioned in order for this to fill like a complete overview of uh this perspective sure there’s there’s a few things that I’d like to mention one space perspective is an American company the capsule is being designed and built uh in the US in Florida at on the Space Coast all of the technology the balloon all the safety the the backup features the backup the parachutes and the backup parachutes you know all of that that’s all being engineered and designed and constructed in the US which I think is phenomenal yay now thinking a little more globally one of the things that space perspective are thinking about long term is that they will launch and retrieve from sea or they will have the ability to do that um and they intend to build a couple of these vessels the one is already built the retrieval vessel that will be used in Florida but then Place one in uh you know Abu Dhabi Dubai that area everyone’s going to Dubai and and sort of the playground of that part of the world and they would have a ship off the coast there and and conduct operations there they may have another one say you know off the coast of of Rio or buen aidis or S Paulo for the Latin American Market um again in Asia maybe off the coast of Shanghai or Tokyo for the Asian market because it is only eight people at a time and it’s highly weather dependent so looking at different weather windows in different parts of the world hey I’m going to be in Asia at that time of the world I can’t do it because it’s hurricane season in Florida so maybe when I’m on a business trip in Asia I’ll sign up and you know I think having more centers around the world and launch points around the world is a very clever approach I also think that’s an even bigger play on why you would want a travel agent to work with because when the time comes and you want to pick a spot maybe they don’t have any available in Florida but the new you know airport launch place is Shanghai you can get there faster and get on that one sooner you know right they’ll know the Travel network will know right yeah and and the other reason behind this and I think it’s fascinating is you know if somebody has this this experience and gets absolutely hooked on it and love it okay I did the experience and I saw the curvature of the earth and I saw the Florida Peninsula fantastic now I want to do it in Europe so that I can see the coastline of France and I can look over and see the UK and I can see the British Isles or I want to do it off of uh Cape Town and see the southernmost point of Africa and see it from all these different perspectives so I I thought I think again it’s very clever what space perspective has in mind in terms of these launch points globally because it doesn’t have to be one and done if if you love this experience and you want to have it gain it doesn’t always just have to be off the Florida coast yeah this is so fun thank you so much for being here and having this fun conversation with me and I want to invite you back so as things develop and things start to happen this can be your channel for getting on and spreading the word about what’s new with space perspective and what is Signature Travel doing to get the their clients on board and have this experience and then after your first if you or some of your clients go and they want to come back and tell their adventure story so the rest of the world can have an experience of what it’s like to go up in space I welcome you back for that so that would be great if you’d like to do all those things I would love to and I think you’re absolutely right I mean hearing from me is one thing because I’m gleaning what I can and learning what I can from space perspective hearing from somebody who actually has the experience is going to be who we really want to speak to and tell us about every aspect of this what was this gentle 12 M hour rise like what was it like being seeing the curvature what was your experience like who did you record a video to who did you speak to from there absolutely I think that’s what did you see in the stars I mean you’re gonna be up in the Stars there’s probably like meteors going and you know all kinds of things who knows the sky is the limit on what you could see so anyway I really appreciate you being here today and for those of you who might be finding this channel for the first time we’re a fairly new channel we do lots of different luxury travel destination experiences so please subscribe and be a part of the exploration and the journey of seeing our beautiful world and reach over to the Signature Travel network and see what other destinations they can put you in and have experiences with do is there anything else you want to tell us about like is there something else you specialize in that they can go to your website and find out about that’s related everything you know any aspect of travel domestic or International um whether it’s flights or a cruise or uh a journey into space yes I love it thank you so much for your time today and I hope to see you again soon you will thank you very much Lydia I appreciate the uh the opportunity thank you yes thank you bye bye bye we hope you enjoyed the show today and if you’d like to be a guest on the Global Travel junkie podcast and YouTube channel reach out to us at our contact us form at globaltravel junkie.com we hope to see you out traveling adios ciao Ava

In today’s Global Travel Junkie Episode, we go to Space, literally!  Karl with Signature Travel Network explains how anyone can get their seat reserved for the next frontier, space!  

We talk about the experience, how to find more information and how to reserve yourself a spot.  To learn more visit www.signaturetravelnetwork.com and find a agent near you.

About Signature Travel Network: Signature Travel Network is not an organization, it is a member-owned community of leading travel agencies and supplier partners in the industry. The Network collectively generates $11+ billion in annual sales and has experienced unprecedented growth in the past ten years. This growth is reflective of the commitment to exclusively align with the most esteemed travel agencies and supplier partners, while simultaneously expanding our reach to more than 15,000 travel advisors in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Mexico, New Zealand and the Caribbean.

About Space Perspective:   Space Perspective aims to redefine space travel by offering the safest, most accessible, and first carbon-neutral human spaceflight experience. The journey is designed to be exhilarating and celebratory, with ample time for quiet contemplation. Over six unforgettable hours, passengers ascend to the edge of space and join the lucky few who have looked down at our home from above.

Space Perspective is driven by a desire to share the transformative power of space travel with as many people as possible. They believe that looking down on Planet Earth from space will radically shift one’s perception of our world and our place within it.

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