'Shooting star wishes' could now be a pricey gift

Japanese startup ALE Co. could be working on making peoples wishes into reality, literally.

As reported by the Japan Times, the company is aiming to create artificial meteor showers expectedly in early 2020. The project which is ambitiously referred to as 'shooting stars on demand' will be based on micro-satellites that would be launched into the atmosphere. These micro-satellites will release tiny balls that will glow brightly as they travel across the atmosphere.

The country's space agency is expected to launch the first satellite into space on a rocket by March next year. While the second will be launched in mid-2019.

Talking to reporters in a press meet, ALE chief executive Lena Okajima said that they were targeting the 'whole world' as their stockpile of shooting stars will be in space and could be delivered across the world. Apart from that, the company also hinted at future operations were satellites that were already in space but were not functional to be used for the same purposes.

However, the price to witness such a meteor shower is not expected to be pocket-friendly as the company has reportedly spent $20 million dollars for the production, development, launch, and operation of the two satellites.

A team of popular and noted scientists and engineers have been hired to work in the project by the company who comes from different backgrounds including corporate sponsors, local government officials and renowned academic institutions of Japan.

This news comes a few weeks after American space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced a collaboration with two of most popular space agencies in Italy to build a spacecraft that would aim to let the tourists have a tour of the outer space and then return back to the planet. The project is reported to be the first space tourism initiative in the European continent.