KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video



KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video

KuangChi Science video

Until now, space tourism has been largely a venture based in the United States. Virgin Galactic, XCOR, Blue Origin, and World View have all announced various plans to fly would-be astronauts into space—or to the edge of space—from American soil. But now a Chinese-based company, KuangChi Science, wants to get into the game by launching balloons from Hangzhou, in eastern China.

China Daily reports that KuangChi will invest about $1.5 billion (~£1.1 billion) into development of futuristic experiences, including a "deep space tour that offers the experience of flying up to 24 kilometers above the ground, which is just beyond the border of outer space." Technically, this might overstate the flight, as the generally accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space is 100km, known as the Kármán line. Moreover "deep space" is generally considered by experts to lie beyond Earth orbit.

But pay no mind to the details. According to KuangChi's website, the balloon experience aboard the "Traveller" capsule will "bring you on a comfortable near-space trip you have never experienced!" The Traveller vehicle is based on the same "airtight cabin design" as the Shenzhou V capsule (China's first crewed mission, launched in 2003) to block cosmic rays. Moreover, the company says the design of the vehicle will ensure the comfort of passengers, "enabling them to feel like sitting in a limousine car."

The new flight system appears to build on KuangChi's "Cloud" balloon platform, which will initially provide air-to-ground monitoring. For human flights, after the Cloud lofts it to an altitude of 24km, the Traveller capsule will cruise for two to three hours before a controlled descent begins. More information on the flight, as well as the "Cloud" balloon system, is available in an informative video on the company's site.

If this experience sounds a bit familiar, that's because it seems to be modeled after that of Tucson, Arizona-based World View, which plans to fly six passengers in a pressurized cabin to an altitude of 30km, where they will remain for a couple of hours. World View has financial backing of significantly less than $1.5 billion, but there are some prominent astronauts, including Mark Kelly and Ron Garan, involved in the project. However, in recent months, the company appears to have become more focused on deploying payloads it calls stratollites up to 46km in the atmosphere rather than flying passengers themselves.

Listing image by KuangChi Science video