Ideas for Getting 5 People to 500,000 feet

[CrazyEgg]

hi
has anyone got any ideas on how you would send people on a sub orbital flight to 500,000 feet and return them safely? (apart from the ones that have been done already ie. spaceshipone even though that only went a bit above 300,000ft)

i came up with 2
the first is the a winged rocket similar to the pegasus where the craft is air dropped at 40,000ft, using the wings the rocket will get into a vertical attitude and get to a speed of 2500mph, the winged rocket booster will shut-off at 300,000ft, will separate from the capsule which is carrying the people and will drop back to Earth by using a parachute so it can be reused, the capsule itself will coast to over 500,000ft and will just drop back down again slowing it's descent down by using a parachute and a water landing

i liked my second idea better but when looking it up on the internet i came across this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin_New_Shepard
and i have to say that my idea was eerily similar to the one above right down to the fuel mixture, safety features and updated shape

so anybody got any ideas for something reusable, efficient and safe (at least for something where you basically have a bomb strapped to your craft)?

 

[McKy]

Well that is interesting. Another idea would be to have a high altitude blimp, carrying the main capsul up to a few miles. Then releasing the craft at that hight upon which it could theoretically fly up, which would help save fuel costs.