Chinese startup targets 2028 crewed suborbital space tourism

A Chinese private company has announced its plan to send tourists to the edge of space by 2028, for 3 million yuan (about $430,000) a seat.

About 20 people have signed up for the trip, including an actor, a top engineer, a poet and a businessman, according to InterstellOr, which was founded in early 2023.

According to the company's website, the CYZ1 suborbital spacecraft will carry up to seven passengers to the Kármán line, or the border between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, at an altitude of about 100 kilometers, for a weightless experience that would last between 3 to 6 minutes.

The announcement became a hot topic on Chinese social media, leading the list of top searches on Baidu, a Chinese search engine. Some netizens welcomed China's entry into commercial space tourism, while others questioned the safety, high price and ambitious timeline.

Digital blogger Miao Wang ("Cat King") said on Weibo, a Chinese platform similar to X, that a 3-million-yuan ticket is not too expensive for rich people, adding that he looks forward to the day when ordinary people can afford it. "I'm looking forward to the price falling to 30,000 yuan," he said.

"If rockets become reusable, ticket prices could really drop to a bargain," Qiyu's Car and Family, a seasoned automotive influencer, noted, adding that "2028 sounds far, but it's actually just two years away."

Yang Yuguang, chairman of the Space Transportation Committee of the International Astronautical Federation, told CGTN that the suborbital space tourism is technically less demanding than orbital human spaceflight, but requires strict safety verification before it can be opened to the public.

Yang emphasized that rigorous testing is needed before private suborbital flights can carry paying passengers.

"It only needs to reach about 1 kilometer per second, compared with 7.8 kilometers per second for orbital travel," he said. "But the key point is how we can do that at a very safe level. We must have certain verification processes and maybe several unmanned launch attempts, and only when all these are very successful can we give the approval."

InterstellOr has already completed initial financing, passed a 2024 feasibility review, and conducted its first landing protection test this month.

The U.S. has already commercialized suborbital space tourism. Virgin Galactic has been flying paying customers on SpaceShipTwo suborbital flights that reach the edge of space, where passengers can float in microgravity after release from the carrier aircraft.

Blue Origin's New Shepard, a fully reusable suborbital vehicle, has completed multiple crewed missions since its first human flight in 2021, with flights lasting about 10 to 12 minutes and offering several minutes of weightlessness past the internationally recognized boundary of space, including an all‑female celebrity crew in April 2025.

Virgin Galactic tickets cost about $600,000, slightly more expensive than InterstellOr's pricing. However, Blue Origin's website shows that the very first seat on New Shepard sells for $28 million. Yang noted, although the price is high now, with scale and technology improvements, it could drop to a 10th of the current price in one or two decades.