A range of sectors from communications to the emergency services are closely watching the progress of World View, which sends high-altitude balloons above the earth to collect data on what they see.

The American company’s first commercial unmanned flight took off in 2015 as part of a NASA programme to help students and researchers.

In April 2016, the company attracted $15m (£11.6m) in a series B funding round led by Canaan Partners. Other investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Moment Ventures and Base Ventures.

World View’s disruptive Stratollite balloon technology enables previously unthinkable applications at a fraction of the cost of existing technology, such as satellites. The company hopes eventually to send tourists to near-space in balloons.

The founders are spacecraft technology expert Taber MacCallum, engineer and planetary scientist Alan Stern and British-born CEO Jane Poynter, who previously worked at the Biosphere 2 earth systems science research facility in Arizona.