Comments
More than 300 wealthy Chinese have signed up for space travel – at a starting price of around ₹60 lakh (600,000 Yuan) for just six minutes in space – after a European company on Thursday launched “private expeditions” starting in 2015.
Within just one day of the programme's launch, 305 Chinese had purchased trips from the Dutch Space Expedition Corporation, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
The trips, aimed at wealthy Chinese, were made available through the popular eBay-like Chinese website Taobao. Media reports said four entrepreneurs from Chengdu, in western Sichuan province, and two businessmen from Shanghai were among those who had purchased trips.
The company said trips on a Lynx Mark I aircraft, at a starting price of 599,999 Yuan (around ₹ 60 lakh) would begin in the winter of 2015 through a “pioneer astronaut” programme that would take passengers 61 km into space.
From 2016, trips for ₹63 lakh on a Lynx Mark II travelling 103-km high would begin, the company said, launching from the Mojave desert in the US.
The only conditions travellers need to meet – besides fronting the not inconsiderable travel expense – are that they should be less two metres tall and weigh below 125 kg, as well as pass basic health examinations and receive one week of training on flight simulators and in zero gravity.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.