Deep-pocketed food and space lovers will soon be able to enjoy gourmet dining in the stratosphere. At least if they are willing to pay almost US$500,000 a ticket.
Less than 24 hours after the trip was announced, many people have already asked where they can sign up.
SpaceVIP, a luxury space travel company, has hired a Danish chef from a two-Michelin-star restaurant for the six-hour, hi-tech space balloon trip, which is set to debut in 2025.
Rasmus Munk will create the menu for the six guests who will be taken 100,000 feet (30 kilometres) above sea level. They will dine watching the sun rise over the earth’s curvature, with Wi-fi on board allowing them to live-stream to friends at home.
The menu is yet to be finalised but the 32-year-old chef said he wants the dishes to be innovative like the journey itself, with aerogel-inspired food and encapsulated aroma among the ideas.
Munk is chef at Denmark’s Alchemist, which was ranked fifth in The World’s Best 50 Restaurants guide for 2023. The avant-garde restaurant is known for its lengthy tasting menu consisting of 50 “impressions” that also involves performance, interaction and immersive audiovisuals.
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Dinner at Alchemist costs 4,900 kroner (US$460) and usually lasts between four and six hours, though Munk has always maintained that the experience is more than just about the meal.
The same applies to this new venture. Despite the expensive price tag, Munk – who will be joining the trip himself – said there are more people interested in the first trip than they can fit on the spacecraft.
“We’re aware that it’s an expensive first journey. But this is, after all, the first launch with these food experiences on board,” he said.
He added the plan is to organise more trips and to lower the price later to allow more people to enjoy the experience.
SpaceVIP founder Roman Chiporukha said: “We’ve already had dozens of qualified participants express tremendous interest in this experience and, with only six seats available, we foresee us securing all passengers in the next few weeks.”
The spacecraft, built by Space Perspective, requires no training or special gear, according to a statement. A pressurised capsule will be lifted by a space balloon, a technology developed by Nasa, rather than a rocket. Test flights will start in April.
SpaceVIP isn’t the first business to offer the chance to eat in space.
In 2023, France’s Zephalto announced that it wanted to offer people the chance to eat on a balloon at the edge of the stratosphere, with prices starting at US$132,000, beginning in 2025.