Traveling at 4,000 km/h to get from Beijing to New York in just one hour. This is the incredible bet that the Chinese company Space Transportation intends to take very seriously. This presented a rocket project and a flying wing capable of performing a suborbital flight to reach the two cities in record time.
Because at present, 10,982 km separate the two megalopolises as the crow flies and it takes more than 18 hours in a classic long-haul plane for such a trip. While the flights of commercial supersonic aircraft like the Concorde no longer exist, new technologies are thought to drastically “shorten” travel times.
By betting on this type of machine, the Chinese company could offer expedited travel to its wealthy passengers. This technology “will be less expensive than satellite launchers and faster than a traditional aircraft”, explains Space Transportation, from its Chinese name Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology Co., Ltd., can we read on the specialized site Space.com.
A manned flight in 2025?
Like the American companies SpaceX and Blue Origin, Space Transportation relies on a reusable launcher to propel its spacecraft, which then begins a mad dash before landing on a ramp specially designed for its arrival. The company has already carried out a new fundraising of more than 40 million euros to accelerate its research and aims to begin the first ground launch tests by the end of 2023. Several pre-tests have already been conducted for his pitcher. The project schedule advances 2025 as the objective of launching a first manned flight.
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Space Transportation collaborates with several forces of the Chinese space program, while Beijing aims to send taikonauts (name given to Chinese astronauts) on the moon by the end of the decade.
At the same time, other suborbital flight projects are emerging in the United States, where private companies such as Virgin Galactic hope to launch long-haul flights in the coming years.
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