Imagine soaring to space for a stunning view of Earth within a luxury pod – no nerve-wracking rocket launches or bulky space suits. On the contrary, in high-end comfort, with a panoramic window that offers a view of our planet that few can boast of having seen, or ever seeing.
Such is the experience being promised by Zephalto, a French space travel company founded by Vincent Farret d’Astiès, who, along with architect and interior designer Joseph Dirand, combined their visions to imagine a capsule designed to carry six travellers to the stars.
The capsule, Céleste, will be carried by a low-carbon space balloon in a breakthrough invention carried out with Zephalto’s scientific partner, France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The first flight is expected to launch in 2025.
“A sculptural object with a strong identity and a soothing shape, the pressurised capsule, carried by its envelope, is at one with the elements. Light and elegant, its carbon structure ensures its resistance to cross the clouds, the bluish halo of the atmosphere and the blackness of space,” says Zephalto.
The pressurised capsule features three wide-angle windows that provide an endless panorama of the scene below, “designed to contemplate the Earth from the stratosphere, at the edge of space.”
Inside the capsule, the colour scheme is predominantly beige, where three individual cabins equipped with separate lighting and adjustable furniture were designed as intimate cocoons suitable for accommodating two people each.
The flight, which is expected to last three hours, reaches its climax after around an hour and a half, when the earth’s curvature begins to emerge in a dramatic view.
Images: Zephalto
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