China’s Space Plane Will Fly From London to New York in an Hour

A new player in space transportation is preparing to appear. It is called Tianxing I.

Beijing-based Space Transportation has been working on Tianxing I since 2018 — the year when the company was established — to make flights between two destinations shorter than ever before. As the firm says, “What we are developing is a rocket with wings.” A rocket with an attached passenger plane takes off vertically. The plane will fly at a speed of 2,671 miles per hour, doubling the speed of Concorde if all goes well.

High-speed point-to-point transportation with Tianxing I

The plane in question, when it covers a distance to reach a high enough altitude, detaches from the wings to continue its suborbital travel. Then, the wings powered by the rocket descend back to the ground to launch another plane. At the end of its journey, the space plane itself lands vertically and it is reusable to reduce the cost.

The company says it “realizes high-speed point-to-point transportation,” Daily Mail reported. Space Transportation is planning to conduct ground tests by 2023. The first flight is expected to take place in 2024 while 2025 was determined as the year for the first crewed flight. An animated video on the company’s website depicts a journey from China to Dubai. The price of a single seat has not been announced yet.

Space Transportation’s initiative, Tianxing I, is nothing new. Richard Branson’s Mojave-based Virgin Galactic launched a crewed suborbital spaceflight. Branson along with five others soared into space on VSS Unity spacecraft in July 2021.

In addition, Radian Aerospace from Washington showed up with its planned orbital space plane called Radian One. “What we are doing is hard, but it’s no longer impossible thanks to significant advancements in materials science, miniaturization, and manufacturing technologies,” Livingston Holder, CTO and co-founder at Radian, said today in a news release. Radian One is explained as “the world’s first fully functional horizontal takeoff and landing, single-stage to orbit vehicle.”

To note, China’s Space Transportation also aims to develop an orbital version of Tianxing I to launch in 2030. Passengers on the plane will be able to see Earth’s unique shape as the aircraft will orbit the pale blue dot.

Speaking of space, a UK-based firm behind Tom Cruise’s film plans to launch a space movie studio in 2024.