China Plans To Begin Space Tourism In 2025, Beyond The Karman Line.

China's top rocket scientist has predicted that by 2025, Beijing would be ready to take paying tourists to the edge of space for a price of between $286,400 and $429,600.

According to Yang Yiqiang, founder of a government-backed firm looking into commercial usage of rockets, commercial space travel will be in "full flower" by 2027. In 2018, he also oversaw the whole Long March 11 rocket program as its general director.

In an interview with Global Times, Yang described how China's commercial space industry has moved from the 1.0 era, defined by foundational manufacturing and research and development (R&D), to the 2.0 age, fueled by applications and market forces.

Within the next decade, the industry is projected to advance to the same degree of sophistication as the United States. The China Daily had previously stated that seven tourists may take off together and go more than 100 kilometres in the air.

Suborbital flight, Yang said, is more technologically advanced and suitable for the majority of people than other modes of space travel. The 10-minute flight would carry passengers over the Kármán line, the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space, where they would feel weightless for a few minutes.

CAS Space said last year that it was working on a reusable rocket and spacecraft that would only need one launch to reach orbit. Once the rocket crossed the Kármán line, the spacecraft detached and continued on its way through the air, propelled by inertia alone.

The spacecraft would float down to Earth on a parachute, but the rocket would re-enter the atmosphere and land gently thanks to its own power.

Part of CAS Space, which was founded in 2018, is owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It's one of the most important new Chinese commercial launch companies.

China Tourism Group, the country's biggest state-owned travel agency, and the corporation are said to have signed a partnership agreement in July, vowing to work together to promote commercial space technology and establish a new space economy, including space tourism.

In the new year, it will undertake a series of unmanned test flights before it is used to carry paying customers. China has 370 commercial space-related firms by the year 2021, quickly overtaking the United States.

Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic has said it would start selling $450,000 tickets for trips to space. Elon Musk's SpaceX sent four paying customers into space without any humans on board last year.

According to SpaceX, the private crewed vehicle orbited the Earth at 575 kilometres for three days, which is higher than the current orbits of the space station. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's company that offers space travel to customers, completed its sixth human spaceflight trip in August. CAS Space said last year that it was working on a reusable rocket and spacecraft that would only need one launch to reach orbit. Once the rocket crossed the Kármán line, the spacecraft detached and continued on its way through the air, propelled by inertia alone.

The spacecraft would float down to Earth on a parachute, but the rocket would re-enter the atmosphere and land gently thanks to its own power.

Part of CAS Space, which was founded in 2018, is owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It's one of the most important new Chinese commercial launch companies.

China Tourism Group, the country's biggest state-owned travel agency, and the corporation are said to have signed a partnership agreement in July, vowing to work together to promote commercial space technology and establish a new space economy, including space tourism.

In the new year, it will undertake a series of unmanned test flights before it is used to carry paying customers. China has 370 commercial space-related firms by the year 2021, quickly overtaking the United States.

Similarly, Virgin Galactic has previously said that it would begin selling space trips for $450,000. Elon Musk's SpaceX sent four paying customers into orbit without any humans on board last year.

According to SpaceX, the private crewed vehicle orbited the earth at 575 kilometres for three days, which is higher than the current orbits of the space station. With the completion of its sixth human space travel trip in August, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company, which offers such services, made headlines.

China’s Growing Footprint
This news arrived when the world's leading economies were competing fiercely for a piece of the rapidly growing space sector.

To ensure that the United States remains at the forefront of the space economy, Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged government agencies to submit plans to authorize and regulate "commercial space operations" within the next six months. Also making steady progress in this area in China.

China's commercial space sector had a compound annual growth rate of 22.09 percent between 2015 and 20 due to the country's extensive portfolio of intellectual property rights, a system for fostering talent, and assistance from the central government.

Domestic and commercial space activities have a limited scope. According to Yang, most enterprises are still in the "accumulation" phase since their rocket and satellite operations are not yet lucrative.

By the time SpaceX was established in 2002, the commercial space industry had already been actively supported by the United States since the 1980s.

In contrast, China's government just began encouraging private companies to develop the commercial space sector in 2015. Seven years of fast growth in many sectors, including rocket launches, the development of satellite and ground equipment, satellite operation, and satellite application, have started to give the industry some form.