Space Trips Open to Chinese Travelers

created: 2013-12-31

Chinese travelers will be able to take space trips by the end of 2014 thanks to an agreement signed on Dec.27 in Beijing between a Chinese travel agency and Netherlands-based space tourism firm Space Expedition Corporation (SXC). 

Travelers will pay a minimum of RMB580, 000 yuan (about 95,000 U.S. dollars) to board the Lynx Mark I spacecraft produced by the U.S. private aerospace company XCOR, an officer of the Chinese travel agency said. 

"The spaceship only carries one tourist, who sits in the co-pilot seat, and a pilot astronaut," he said, "The spaceship arrives in outer space 60 minutes after its take-off and will fly in space for 20 minutes while the tourist enjoys the view of the earth and space". 

The Lynx Mark I spacecraft, which is expected to begin flights in the fourth quarter of 2014, will take a total of 100 travelers separately into sub-space to a height of 60 km. SXC has reserved at least six spots for Chinese on the spacecraft. 

The Lynx Mark II spacecraft, which is expected to start flights in 2015, will take participants into space to a height of 103 km, and there will be no quota for the number of participants on the Lynx Mark II, said the CEO of SXC Asia.

 

-News from Xinhua 

 

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