The World View manufacturing facility in Tucson, Arizona contains what looks like the world’s largest wallpaper-pasting table. At 540ft-long (165 metres), the bench stretches into the distance within an otherwise mostly empty warehouse. Lying across the top is the fragile translucent fabric of a giant plastic bag.

This carefully engineered polyethylene envelope – which will fill to the size of a football stadium – is designed to carry a pressurised gondola on a voyage to the edge of space.

Drifting across the top of the stratosphere, 20 miles (32 kilometres) above the Earth, six passengers will be able to relax in their comfy seats and look out through an enormous bay window. Supping drinks from the bar, they can use the on-board wifi to send selfies to their friends far below.