China’s first commercial space travel firm offers 20 tickets on Taobao at US$280,000 each

The suborbital trip, scheduled for 2027, will last around 12 minutes with a maximum height of 150 kilometres

Reading Time:2 minutes

Deep Blue Aerospace conducted a vertical recovery flight test of its Nebula-1 reusable launch vehicle in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia, on September 22, 2024. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00pm, 26 Oct 2024

Chinese space technology start-up Deep Blue Aerospace is offering another 20 tickets for space travel at 2 million yuan each (US$280,756), after the first two discounted tickets were snapped up.

The company, on its official Taobao store, priced the trip at 2 million yuan (US$280,000), after selling two tickets during a live streamed session on Thursday for half the price.

When approached by the Post on Saturday, Deep Blue’s customer support on Taobao said that there are 20 more tickets available and that the buyers, who need to pay an online deposit of 100,000 yuan per ticket, have to go to its research centre in Beijing to sign a contract and pay the rest.

Deep Blue’s public relations staff did not immediately respond to a request for details on the buyers when emailed by the Post outside business hours on Saturday.

Huo Liang, chairman of Deep Blue Aerospace. Photo: Handout

Taobao is operated by Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

According to Deep Blue’s sales promotion information, the suborbital trip, scheduled for 2027, will last around 12 minutes with a maximum height of 150 kilometres, including zero gravity experience lasting at least 5 minutes.