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Astronauts exclaim that the multifaceted, transformative experience of seeing Earth and the blue line of our atmosphere from space is stunningly beautiful, deeply compelling, and profoundly moving. The accessibility of Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune opens space travel, offering explorers the same astonishing opportunity as astronauts: to gaze out at the cosmos and down on our home, experiencing the wonder-filled expansion of human consciousness.
Who are the experts who are paving the way?
Jane Poynter – Founder & Co-CEO
Jane’s career of innovation, focus and passion led her to create the commercial spaceflight company Space Perspective with her husband and business partner, Taber MacCallum. Jane and Taber have been dubbed ‘Masters of the stratosphere,’ by Bloomberg Business Week. As Chief Experience Officer, Jane is charged with ensuring all space explorers who register to fly have the most meaningful and memorable journey possible. The hope is to ignite and inspire a curiosity that will ultimately lead to a significant and global awareness.
Taber MacCallum – Founder & Co-CEO / CTO
Taber’s reputation for tirelessly pursuing knowledge and excellence precedes him. His life’s journey has enriched his every step, leading him to co-create the commercial spaceflight company Space Perspective with his wife and business partner Jane Poynter. Taber is a board member and the former Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. As the Chief Technology Officer of Space Perspective, Taber heads up a team of world class engineers. His experience, knowledge and passion conjure confidence and inspire the whole project.
Zane Maccagnano – Capsule Engineering Team Lead
Zane brings a unique combination of aviation, human spaceflight, SpaceBalloon™ system technology and human flight operations to the team. These include thermal technology used on the Dream Chaser ISS supply spacecraft; structural, mechanical and life support system lead for StratEx; and design engineering lead for the World View Stratollite.
Dr. John Straus – Life Support & Thermal Team Lead
John led the design and operation of more SpaceBalloon™ systems for both human and un-crewed flights than anyone else in the world. He holds many world records in space ballooning, including the heaviest payload launched by a balloon to the edge of space, and the StratEx flight sending Alan Eustace to the world record altitude of 136,000 feet in human SpaceBalloon™ flight.
Vincent Bachet – Manufacturing Team Lead
After founding and operating a custom composites manufacturing business for the luxury yacht market, Vincent spent more than a decade helping invent composites solutions for reusable orbital vehicles at SpaceX. He also has experience in oilfield commercial diving and open ocean sailboat racing.
Jeff Hoffman – Senior Technical Advisor
Jeff was a NASA astronaut who flew over 21 million miles in space during five Space Shuttle flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1,000 hours on the Shuttle. He performed NASA’s first unplanned contingency spacewalk and was an EVA crew member of the first Hubble Space Telescope repair mission performing space walks to fix the telescope’s vision. An astrophysicist and professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, he is Deputy Principal Investigator of the MOXIE experiment on Mars2020 Perseverance mission, that landed on Mars on February 18, 2021. MOXIE will be the first extra-terrestrial demonstration of In-Situ Resource Utilization, turning atmospheric CO2 into breathable oxygen. He was elected to the US Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2007.
Dr. Jon Clark – Safety Operations
Jon has been the safety advisor for all human stratospheric balloon flights in recent history including StratEx and Stratos. He is a member of NASA’s Columbia Space Shuttle accident investigation panel, and a former NASA and Navy Flight surgeon and Navy Diver.
Chelsea Green – Director, Explorer Experience
With over 10 years’ experience in the commercial human spaceflight arena, Chelsea was a founding crew member of the Astronaut Sales team at Virgin Galactic before transitioning to operations to help spearhead the design of ground-based customer experiences. At the Zero Gravity Corporation, she led the sales and operations divisions. Her strength in relationship management is a key strength for our customers.
Edyta Teper – Head, Global Sales – Trade Partnerships
Edyta brings over 25 years of travel industry experience, sales and leadership abilities. She has held various senior sales and marketing positions, where she oversaw relationship development with the travel industry’s most valued partners. She began her career with Jetset Tours which brought her to Los Angeles from Melbourne, Australia, followed by Carnival Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises, Virtuoso and on the Virgin Voyages start-up team.
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