“Airspace to Orbit” JP-Aerospace is a private company striving to make access to space easier and cheaper, by using balloons. A smaller helium/hydrogen filled, propeller powered vehicle (much like a blimp) will takeoff from Earth with passengers/cargo and ascend to 140000 feet altitude. It will then dock with a 2 mile wide high altitude base station (also filled with helium/hydrogen). A 6000 foot long ion-engine powered space-worthy balloon will then depart from the base station, gradually raising it’s orbit over several days as it gradually picks up speed, until it has enough speed to escape Earth’s orbit. Multiple vehicles must be used. The smaller ascender operates in Earth’s atmosphere as it’s skin is a lot thicker and tougher, but this makes it too heavy to be able to escape Earth’s orbit. The larger orbiter has incredibly thin skin so that it is light enough to escape Earth’s orbit as it gains speed, lightly skimming on the top of the atmosphere – the skin is so thin that it would get damaged by even moderate atmospheric winds. www.jpaerospace.com http en.wikipedia.org
