Mercedes-Maybach Teams With Carbon Neutral Spaceflight Company to Peer Into the Future

It might be another one of those petty musings you hear from auto journalists as they're forced to sift through unending RSS feeds day in and day out until our eyeballs are bleeding and our blood pressure readout gives our doctors cause for concern. But somehow, the latest collab between Mercedes-Maybach and the carbon-neutral spaceflight company Space Perspective just makes sense to us for some strange reason.

Founded in 2019 by two veterans of human spaceflight, Jane Boynter, and Taber MacCallum, Space Perspective is currently the world's only human-crewed spaceflight contractor dedicated to providing fully carbon-neutral solutions to the problem of how to get humans into deep space without sacrificing the surrounding ecosystem in the process. Through novel designs for a giant balloon with a pressurized crew capsule mounted underneath, Space Perspective aims to whisk a human crew up to altitudes of 100,000 feet (30,480 m), or even higher than the peak altitude capabilities of the USAF's U-2 spy plane, without the need for expensive, environmentally damaging solid or liquid fuel rocket boosters as we've come to expect from space flight.

Dubbed the Spaceship Neptune, the as-yet still-in-development spaceship is the exact opposite of the brash, loud space rockets we've become used to. It's this maverick-like drive towards innovation in a sustainable and environmentally conscious manner that attracted Mercedes-Benz's ultra-luxurious Maybach brand towards a formal partnership, as announced via a press release from the Mercedes newsroom.

For a brand committed to lowering its carbon footprint by any means necessary without sacrificing the luxury and refinement, its customers don't just expect but demand, an outside-the-box partnership with such a promising aerospace contractor can only be positive for both parties as they inch further and further towards their respective goals in their own industries.

"Our partnership with Space Perspective will allow space explorers to ride in style on the ground and for us to extend the highest level of Maybach refinement and brand experience to the edge of space."
explained Daniel Lescow, Head of Mercedes-Maybach at Mercedes-Benz Group AG. This was a sentiment felt just as strongly on the Spaec Perspective side of things.

"Pairing our all-electric Spaceship Neptune with the all-electric Mercedes-Maybach represents a sustainable and inspiration-filled future, not to mention a heightened overall experience for Space Perspective Explorers," said Jane Poynter, Founder and Co-CEO of Space Perspective, which was then backed up by her partner Taber MacCallum. This partnership accelerates innovation and broadens market exposure for both companies' respective positions of strength in electric automotive and space travel." No word yet on what this peculiar partnership might yield. But one thing's for sure, we're infinitely intrigued.