Actor Huang Jingyu Among China's 1st Commercial Space Tourists

Chinese actor Huang Jingyu is set to join the ranks of China's first commercial space tourists, with a planned journey aboard the "CYZ1" spacecraft developed by commercial spaceflight firm InterstellOr, the company announced Friday. The mission, targeting a 2028 launch, would mark the country's inaugural crewed commercial spaceflight.

The "CYZ1" spacecraft represents China's entry into the commercial human space travel market. InterstellOr, founded in January 2023, is China's first company focused specifically on commercial manned space technology, with an emphasis on reusable spacecraft and space tourism operations.

The firm has already begun advance ticket sales, pricing seats at 3 million yuan (US$430,797) each. A 10 percent deposit secures a reservation.

So far, more than 10 paying customers from fields including academia, business, aerospace, the arts, entertainment, and online media have signed agreements. Among them are Qiu Heng, CMO of robotics startup AgiBot, Li Licheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, poet Lin Xiaoyan, Liu Baiqi, CEO of rocket firm Galactic Energy, and actor Huang Jingyu.

In a key milestone for China's commercial space industry, InterstellOr announced on January 18 the successful testing of the landing buffer system for its CYZ1 prototype module. The achievement makes it the world's third commercial aerospace company to independently develop and validate this crucial technology for manned spacecraft.

InterstellOr aims to complete development of a reusable suborbital manned spacecraft within three to four years and begin offering commercial space tourism services across China and Asia around 2028.