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A Chinese private space company, InterstellOr, has recently started inviting tourists for a suborbital space trip planned for 2028, according to a report from Space.com on the 31st of last month. The firm has also launched promotional efforts involving well-known celebrities. Some analyses indicate that China’s private space tourism sector has officially begun its ascent.

As reported by Space.com, InterstellOr revealed a full-size prototype of its crewed spacecraft capsule CYZ1 (ChuanYueZhe 1) on the 22nd of last month and stated intentions to launch serious space tourism efforts in 2028. The CYZ1 is expected to reach the Karman Line, an altitude of 100 km known as the edge of space, where travelers will feel weightlessness for a few minutes, view Earth and the cosmos, and then come back.

The company is also taking bookings for visitors. The starting ticket cost is around 3 million yuan (625.77 million South Korean won). A 10% deposit is needed to confirm a reservation.

The organization has also launched a celebrity marketing campaign. It revealed that Johnny Huang, a well-known Chinese actor and model, is the first celebrity to travel to space. His passenger booking number is ‘009’.

This method is comparable to that of Blue Origin, a U.S.-based private space company owned by Jeff Bezos, which drew public interest in 2021 when it carried actors such as William Shatner, known for his role in the film “Star Trek.”

Several other Chinese companies are also beginning to introduce space tourism initiatives. CAS Space, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is currently working on its own space tourism project. In January, it conducted the first launch of an unmanned capsule to test microgravity conditions. Another private space company, Deep Blue Aerospace, is also in the process of developing a suborbital space tourism program using reusable rockets.