Exploring Space with Enormous Balloons

23 years ago, the US multi-millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first-ever space tourist, funding his own trip into orbit.

There was clearly money to be made, and now the lure of making space tourism more accessible to the masses is even greater - with several private companies jockeying for position.

Jane Poynter’s firm is among them.

It’s an industry experiencing dramatic growth – but the price of any of these trips is out of reach of most of us.

We explore whether this firm could achieve its aim of launching more of us into stratospheric heights.

And we hear how Jane went on her own journey: from ecologist working in the famous Biosphere 2 experiment in the early 1990s, to looking skywards and the possibilities of a career in space tourism.

Presenter: Ed Butler Producer: Amber Mehmood