Chinese state-backed company to launch space tourism flights by 2028
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The Chang'e 6 lunar probe and the Long March-5 Y8 carrier rocket combination at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province, on May 3.
FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING - Chinese commercial space company CAS Space announced that its “space tourism vehicle” will first fly in 2027 and travel to the edge of space in 2028, state media reported on May 17.
This comes just days after American billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin announced that its New Shepard Rocket, which flies cargo and humans on short trips to the edge of space, would resume flights on May 19, ending a near two-year pause of crewed operations.
CAS Space said that its vehicle will include a tourist cabin that has four panoramic windows and can carry seven passengers per flight.
The company plans to arrange a launch every 100 hours from a newly built aerospace theme park, with ten vehicles available to take tourists to the edge of space in shifts.
Tickets will cost 2 million yuan (S$373,000) to 3 million yuan per person per trip, state media said.
Guangzhou-based CAS Space was founded in 2018 and its second-largest shareholder is China's biggest state research institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China's space exploration programme has recently narrowed the gap with the US and could become the first country to return samples from the far side of the moon after it launched the Chang'e-6 mission earlier in May.
That launch attracted hordes of tourists to the launch site on China's island province of Hainan.
Before blast-off, tens of thousands of people gathered in different viewing spots near the launch site, causing long traffic jams. REUTERS
