A “ROCKET with wings” is being developed by the Chinese company, Space Transportation.
In a statement by the company in an interview, the project is being done to create high-speed, point-to-point transportation. If fully successful, a flight from Beijing to New York would only take an hour.
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“Which is lower in cost than rockets that carry satellites and faster than traditional aircraft,” read the statement.
The goal for the space plane is to provide rapid transport between two destinations through suborbital travel while also being fully reusable.
The company’s website features a video showcasing the project with animated passengers boarding a plane with rockets attached to the wings.
After a vertical takeoff, the rocket-power wings detach from the plane as it continues to Dubai, landing on three legs in a vertical position.
Ground tests are planned by 2023, according to the company, whose full name is Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology Co, Ltd.
The first flight is planned for 2024, with a crewed flight a year later.
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A test flight for a global, or orbital, crewed space vehicle is also being planned by 2030, according to the company, which was founded in 2018.
Space Transportation announced last August that $46.million had been raised for hypersonic space plane plans and multiple tests have been conducted on its Tianxing 1 and Tianxing 2 vehicles.
The tenth test flight was conducted on January 23, however, details about these flights have been limited, likely due to the sensitive nature of hypersonic technology.
Secretive launch tests of suborbital and orbital vehicles have been conducted in 2020 and 2021 by China’s main space contractor, the Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
Other similar projects are being conducted around the world. Virgin Galactic performed a fully-crewed suborbital flight of the VSS Unity in July last year, carrying Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and other passengers.
SpaceX introduced a concept in 2017 called “Earth to Earth”, originally conceived to bring passengers to Mars. Earth to Earth was designed as a city-to-city passenger transport using Starship rockets.
CAC Space, an aerospace company from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is also creating its own suborbital tourism service.
This one will use a rocket system resembling the one created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin.
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