Rob Horgan
REACHING space in a balloon may sound like a Disney movie plot but a Spanish aeronautical company aims to do just this.
Engineers from Barcelona-based company zero2infinity have been developing an environmentally friendly, high-altitude balloon to transport nano-satellites into Earth’s orbit.
The balloon – or ‘bloostar’ as it is being called – is propelled above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere by helium and once in position the satellite’s launcher is dropped and fired into the atmosphere by liquid-fueled engines.
CEO and founder of zero2infinity José Mariano López-Urdiales revealed the company has already received €158 million worth of pre-sales and the technology will be fully operational by 2017.
He said: “We have been working on the idea for bloostar for years. Now the technology on both the satellite and launch vehicle sides is mature enough to make it happen.”
