China’s growing interest in space tourism is moving closer to the mainstream travel market, with Trip.com offering Chinese customers a six-day package culminating in a Virgin Galactic space flight for 5.1 million yuan (US$760,000).
The package, listed through Ctrip, Trip.com’s mainland China platform, is currently the most expensive publicly available space tourism product on the Chinese market and represents a striking example of how commercial space travel is beginning to enter the portfolios of conventional travel companies.
The six-day itinerary takes place in the United States, starting in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Travellers spend the first four days preparing for their flight before boarding a Virgin Galactic spacecraft for a 90-minute suborbital experience on the fifth day.
https://t.co/uV0odA123S's luxury travel platform started selling Virgin Galactic’s 2027 space tour ticket for CNY5.1 million (USD760,000), the most expensive public space tour product in the Chinese market. Two adventurous travelers have already secured a spot. Starting in Las… pic.twitter.com/e96rdUffMk
— Yicai 第一财经 (@yicaichina) September 16, 2026
The programme includes simulator-based training, centrifuge and G-force tolerance exercises, parabolic flights, sensory-overload training, emergency-response drills and equipment-operation training. During the flight itself, passengers are expected to experience several minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth through the spacecraft’s 17 windows.
China looks towards space tourism
While the flight itself is operated by an American company from US soil, its appearance on one of China’s largest travel platforms points to the country’s increasing interest in developing a market for space tourism.
That interest extends beyond selling overseas experiences. In November 2025, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s major state-owned space contractor, announced a Chinese space tourism initiative at the China International High-Tech Fair in Shenzhen.
The announcement came as China’s rapidly expanding commercial aerospace sector increasingly explores opportunities beyond conventional government-led space programmes.
China has already established itself as one of the world’s major space powers, operating its own Tiangong space station and pursuing plans for crewed lunar exploration. Cooperation between the China National Space Administration and Russia’s Roscosmos is also continuing on the proposed International Lunar Research Station, with site reconnaissance due to be completed in 2026 and construction expected to begin from 2028.
Tourism, however, represents a very different market. Rather than scientific missions lasting months or complex orbital expeditions, commercial operators are increasingly concentrating on shorter suborbital experiences aimed at wealthy private travellers.
The development comes amid an intensifying global space tourism race, with private companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin working to establish a regular market for paying passengers.
Virgin Galactic prepares for 2027 return
Trip.com’s new offer comes as Virgin Galactic prepares to resume commercial operations with its next generation of spacecraft.
The company opened bookings in April 2026 for a limited tranche of 50 spaceflight expeditions priced at US$750,000 (€633,000) per person. By 12 August, the tranche had been oversubscribed, adding more than US$50 million (€42 million) to Virgin Galactic’s expected future spaceflight revenue.
Virgin Galactic’s first new spacecraft is now expected to enter commercial service in February 2027, later than its previous target of the fourth quarter of 2026, as the company allows more time for avionics and systems installation.
For Trip.com, that timetable means customers are effectively booking an experience ahead of Virgin Galactic’s planned return to commercial passenger operations.
The listing has prompted discussion on Chinese social media about both the price and safety of the product. Some users have questioned whether a few days of preparation are sufficient for spaceflight, while others have expressed doubts about how mature commercial space tourism will be by 2027.
Questions have also been raised about the physical demands of the experience and responsibility for passenger safety. At 5.1 million yuan, meanwhile, the price ensures that space tourism remains far beyond the reach of the overwhelming majority of travellers.
From astronauts to tourists
Space tourism itself is no longer new. American businessman Dennis Tito became the first self-funded space tourist in 2001, travelling to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
More recently, companies including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have concentrated on shorter suborbital flights. Blue Origin’s New Shepard programme had flown 92 passengers, representing 86 individuals, by the end of 2025.
The sector has also begun broadening the profile of those able to participate. In 2025, European Space Agency aerospace and mechatronics engineer Michaela Benthaus became the first wheelchair user to fly above the Kármán Line aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard.
But the appearance of a US$760,000 spaceflight on a major Chinese travel booking platform represents another step in the sector’s evolution. Instead of customers approaching specialist aerospace companies directly, spaceflight is increasingly being marketed alongside other high-end travel experiences.
For China, it also comes as the country develops ambitions of its own in commercial spaceflight and space-related tourism.
Trip.com’s package may currently send Chinese travellers more than 10,000 kilometres away to New Mexico before they can travel beyond Earth, but the combination of growing domestic demand and China’s expanding commercial aerospace industry suggests that the country is positioning itself to play a larger role in the emerging space tourism market.
