Ballooning in Japan as early as this spring or later – A “Space Tour” in Japan by the end of this year!　How much is it?

This is a world first!　Balloon space flight as early as this spring

Experiencing space still seems a long way off. However, the world’s first balloon flight to space will take place as early as this spring or later,

“As early as this spring, a new experience of a space flight from the stratosphere may become a reality,” says Iwatani Giken.

says Ryotaro Seino of Iwatani Giken’s Project Promotion Department.

Iwatani Giken’s plan is to take a balloon into the stratosphere to view space and the Earth. Why a balloon?

Keisuke Iwatani, the president of Iwatani Giken, was in the rocket laboratory at Hokkaido University, and launching a rocket generally requires a lot of money and tens of thousands of parts. The cost of getting on board is also high. We thought about what form would be best for people to experience space in a more accessible way, and we came up with balloons.”

The company was founded in 2004. The project for a manned space flight began in 2008. It took only five years for the project to be realized. That seems surprisingly fast, doesn’t it?

During that time, we began by attaching a string to an unmanned balloon and flying it, followed by a manned flight, and then we eliminated the string and gradually increased the altitude, and so on.

Then, in July 2012, the spacecraft reached the stratosphere in a manned flight test. The preparations were complete.