Commercial Space Tourism (Suborbital)
Geography: Asia Pacific · East Asia · China
InterstellOr is developing a reusable suborbital vehicle that would carry passengers to the edge of space for several minutes of weightlessness. Tickets are priced at approximately 3 million yuan ($430,000) — comparable to Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin pricing.
The company has signed its first celebrity passenger and is taking bookings. CAS Space, another Chinese contender, is developing a separate suborbital tourist vehicle. Both are part of China's booming commercial space sector (150+ private companies).
The timeline is ambitious. No Chinese company has yet flown a crewed suborbital mission, and the 2028 target requires significant development milestones. But the broader context matters: China's commercial space sector is growing faster than the US's by several metrics, and tourism is a revenue model that could fund more ambitious programs.