Mercedes-Maybach already makes some out-of-this-world autos. But now, along with a startup referred to as Space Perspective, the high-end luxurious automaker is definitely heading off-planet (kind of).

The partnership begins on the bottom. The Maybach EQS SUV will act because the official transport car for the Space Perspective program when it kicks off, whisking six passengers per flight to their pressurized capsule. Attached to every capsule is an enormous SpaceBalloon powered by hydrogen that lifts passengers at 14 miles per hour to 100,000 ft (our resident NASA nerds remind us that house begins at 62 miles excessive, so 100,000 ft isn’t precisely the nice unknown).

Each journey takes about six hours; two hours to get there, two hours floating in house, and two hours on the return. No rocket gas obligatory. And very like the electrical Mercedes-Maybach EQS, the Space Perspective journey is carbon-neutral and “completely silent,” notes Founder and Co-CEO Jane Poynter.

“We are taking all of us to space but in a very different way than you would most likely have ever imagined,” says Poynter. “This has no rockets involved, there’s no high Gs, there’s no space suits – none of that. Instead, we’re using a balloon that gently takes people to space to have that quintessential astronaut experience.”

The inside the Space Perspective capsule appears to be like like a luxury SUV with six lounge-like chairs dealing with huge home windows – the most important of any spacecraft, Poynter notes – with a central bar, some greenery, and sure, even a rest room. The inside was designed by Space Perspective, however that will change by way of this partnership.

In the longer term, Maybach plans to place its personal stamp on the inside of every capsule. “Eventually that effort will culminate into Maybach being involved in the interior design of the capsule,” notes Daniel Lescow, Head of Mercedes-Maybach within the US.

The first Space Perspective mission is about to launch later in 2024, with exams presently ongoing. And the value per seat is a cool $125,000, which suggests flights might be restricted solely to individuals who can possible afford to purchase a Maybach EQS.

“We are about to get back into test flights with on-crew test flights first and then getting into crew test flights mid-next year… and then around the end of the year, we’ll be in commercial operations,” says Poynter. “So for us, it is an incredibly exciting time to bring this to market. We already have 1,650 plus people who have bought tickets to go to space, which is very exciting for us.”