One of the most frustrating things about being an astronaut, fliers often say, is being unable to share the incredible experience of seeing our world from above with the rest of us. Astronauts go to space and then come back talking about things like seeing no borders, spaceship Earth, and the need to protect our planet both because of its beauty and fragility.

Perhaps no astronaut has taken this to heart more than Ron Garan, who left NASA in 2014 to work full time on sharing this unique perspective of the planet. Garan believes deeply in the “transformative power” of the big picture and how it compels people to address the challenges facing humanity back on Earth.

But Garan’s websites, book, and documentary film can do only so much to help people see this bigger picture. Each medium has its limitations. Really, there’s no substitute for being there and seeing it with one's own eyes. So on Tuesday, Garan announced he’s joining World View, a company that will use balloons to loft passengers above 100,000 feet, as the company’s chief pilot.

“It really is an extraordinary fit,” Garan told Ars in an interview. “Everything I’ve done since leaving NASA has been to figuratively transport people to let them see that big picture. Now for the first time I’m not limited to figuratively showing them, I can literally take them to the edge of space. They don’t call the company World View by accident, it is a transformative experience.”

World View won’t take passengers to space, but it will bring them about a third of the way toward the Kármán line, the 100km level considered the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere. Even at 100,000 feet, however, the balloon will have risen above 99 percent of Earth’s atmosphere, offering a view of the planet’s curvature and the thin veil of its atmosphere. Passengers will be able to look up and see the blackness of space during the daytime. The company may begin flying passengers as soon as 2017, and at least initially it won't be cheap: a six-hour experience will cost $75,000.

But the experience could definitely be life-changing, Garan says. The capsule, with large windows, will be almost like having two of the cupolas on the International Space Station. He also stressed the importance of a leisurely experience. “We’re going to be up at altitude for two hours,” he said. “It’s not going to be a snapshot. They’re going to have time to let it all soak in and process the experience. That is a really crucial aspect, you need time to process this to have the full effect.”

Garan, a test pilot who flew combat missions in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, flew a space shuttle mission in 2008 and spent six months on board the space station in 2011. He admitted that he missed seeing the planet from that perspective. Now, if all goes well, he’ll be returning an awful lot in the next few years as World View completes a regimen of test flights and begins flying commercially.