China’s Deep Blue Aerospace reveals suborbital tourism plans

HELSINKI — Chinese launch startup Deep Blue Aerospace targets providing suborbital tourism flights starting in 2027.

Deep Blue Aerospace is currently developing its Nebula-1 reusable orbital rocket and is preparing for a new vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test in November. A full orbital flight and recovery is planned for 2025. The company lost a first stage in the final moments of a 179-second VTVL test flight in September.

While looking to secure contracts for satellite launches, Deep Blue Aerospace will soon look to space tourism.

“After the Nebula-1 rocket will undergo multiple recovery and reuse tests in 2025, the Deep Blue Aerospace crew spacecraft-rocket combination will also undergo dozens of tests in 2026 to ensure the safety and reliability of suborbital manned travel, and officially start suborbital travel commercialization in 2027,” according to a company statement Oct. 23.

The company is selling the first two suborbital tickets on presale in a Taobao live streaming event Oct. 24, featuring its chairman Huo Liang. Further tickets will go on sale in the future.

The company notes the progress of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in suborbital tourism, as well as SpaceX’s orbital Dragon tourist flights. “There are also many commercial aerospace companies in China that are closely developing and exploring the process of commercializing space tourism,” the statement reads.

The system will use a single-stage reusable rocket and a crew spacecraft, in the manner of the Blue Origin New Shepard system. It will fly to an altitude of between 100 and 150 kilometers, providing up to 600 seconds of microgravity experience for its passengers.

The crew module will be 3.5 meters wide with a height of 4.0 meters. It will be able to carry six passengers and features six windows. It will be able to hold a payload of 1,200 kilograms and be reused 50 times. The company plans dozens of test flights before starting commercial services in 2027. Full price of the tickets is noted as 1.5 million yuan ($210,000).

Founded in 2017, Deep Blue Aerospace is led by Huo Liang, who has previous experience in the Chinese aerospace sector. The company’s headquarters are located in Jiangsu Province, China. It secured strategic funding in August.

Deep Blue Nebula is not the only Chinese firm targeting suborbital tourism. CAS Space, a spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is also developing a similar service, also planning to begin tourist flights in 2027. The plans were announced in 2021. That firm is also developing an orbital reusable kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket.

Both are focused on suborbital flights. It is unknown if the companies will later look to provide orbital tourist flights.

China already has human spaceflight capabilities through the Shenzhou spacecraft which fly to the Tiangong space station. The country’s state-owned main contractor is also developing a new-generation, partially reusable crew spacecraft for low Earth orbit and crewed lunar missions.