This Chinese company launches ticket sales for space travel: Check prices and schedule

A Chinese company, Deep Blue Aerospace, will begin selling tickets on Thursday for a commercial spaceflight scheduled for 2027. The tickets will be available during a livestream shopping event hosted by the company's founder, Huo Liang. Each ticket costs 1.5 million yuan (approximately $211,000) and offers passengers a chance to experience five minutes of zero gravity.

Customers can secure their tickets by paying a 50,000 yuan deposit. Deep Blue Aerospace aims to lead China's growing commercial space industry, which Beijing hopes will compete with international rivals like SpaceX. In 2023, China conducted 26 commercial launches, including the successful launch of LandSpace's Zhuque-2 rocket, the first methane-fueled rocket in the world.

Deep Blue Aerospace is focused on developing reusable rocket technology to lower costs. The planned mission in 2027 will be a suborbital flight, meaning passengers will reach space without entering orbit. The entire space experience is expected to last around 12 minutes.

Several companies have recently entered China's commercial space sector. In May, CAS Space announced plans to start space tourism flights in China by 2028. Meanwhile, Beijing has ambitious goals for its own space program, aiming for a crewed mission to the Moon by 2030 and plans to build a base there.

(Inputs from AFP)