US firm is taking space tourism to luxurious new heights

The prize is the panoramic curvature of the earth against the starry scenery of space, but passengers on the HK$550,000-per-ticket World View Experience trip to the edge of space won't have to keep the privileged view to themselves.

In-flight internet access is guaranteed for all "citizen space explorers" who make the gas balloon-powered trip, which from 2016 will take paying passengers on suborbital flights.

World View's Director of Flight Crew Operations is former Nasa Space Shuttle commander Mark Kelly, who flew four missions and has spent more than 54 days in space. Voyagers in a fully pressurised flight capsule will be slowly lifted to 32 kilometres up by a massive proprietary gas balloon called the ParaWing for a life-changing vista of earth. The five-hour flight from the US state of Arizona is open to all; no special training or spacesuit will be required.

The capsule will carry eight passengers, with two seats in each viewing bay. There will even be a lavatory and refreshments on board.

"The interior of the capsule itself will include world-class, luxury design elements that accentuate the view outside," says British-born entrepreneur Jane Poynter, CEO of World View, who from 1991-93 famously spent two years and 20 minutes in a sealed artificial world called Biosphere 2, an earth systems science research facility at the University of Arizona.

"The capsule will also be equipped with internet access, allowing passengers to capture photos and video for sharing on social media," she says.