Do You Want To Have Dinner In A Balloon In Space? You Can Do It For Half A Million Bucks.

Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk want us to believe that space is for everyone – that not just trained astronauts should be able to see the Earth from way up there.

Well, for everyone who has half a million dollars lying around.

This time it’s a company called SpaceVIP who is currently taking reservations for a “Stratospheric Dining Experience.”

Six people are invited to enjoy dinner at a Michelin Star restaurant inside a pressurized cabin – for $495,000 apiece.

They are planning the launch for as early as 2025 in a vessel called Spaceship Neptune. The company says this “space balloon,” designed by startup Space Perspective, is carbon neutral.

The meal will be designed by Rasmus Munk, who is head chef at a 2-Michelin-Star restaurant, and will be “Holistic Cuisine.”

In case you’re wondering (because we were), “holistic cuisine” is a meal that “doubles as an intentional story that will inspire through and discussion on the role of humanity in protecting our planet while challenging the diner to reexamine our relationship with Earth and those who inhabit it.”

Diners will enjoy this experience 100,000 feet above sea level, watching the sunrise over the Earth’s curvature.

Roman Chiporukha, SpaceVIP’s founder, talked about the offering in a statement.

“Embarking on this unprecedented culinary odyssey to the cosmos marks a pivotal moment in human history. This inaugural voyage is but the first chapter in SpaceVIP’s mission to harness the transformative power of space travel to elevate human consciousness and shape the course of our collective evolution.”

They and representatives from Space Perspective hope the trip will give passengers the “Overview Effect,” which is a feeling of awe experienced by astronauts as they view the Earth from a totally different perspective.

The money from the tickets will reportedly be donated to the Space Prize Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women in the space industry advance.

Those tickets are 2,640-percent higher than the average yearly wage around the globe.

They will be starting text flights later this year, but we should note that despite the billing of a “space” flight, the balloon will actually not enter outer space.

It will end it’s ascent about 43 miles below the Kármán line.

I feel like for that much money they should get you there.

Maybe the desserts will just fall flat if they go further.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read a story that reveals Earth’s priciest precious metal isn’t gold or platinum and costs over $10,000 an ounce!