Dubai to Beijing in one hour? Suborbital flights could offer ultra-fast trips

A Chinese startup is looking to launch suborbital flights that could see passengers darting between Dubai and Beijing in just one hour.

The Government of Dubai Media Office tweeted a Yahoo article that reports Space Transportation's plans to "revolutionise suborbital flights and compete directly with airlines by offering ultra-fast trips into space".

An animated video on the company's website shows what the 7,000km, the 60-minute journey between Beijing and Dubai would look like.

It shows passengers scanning their boarding passes at a port in Beijing before an air hostess ushers them into the suborbital flight. The spacecraft is in a horizontal position as passengers board it. After boarding is complete, it assumes a vertical take-off position before blasting into space with the help of a rocket.

It shoots out to the edge of space, even as passengers do what they would do on a typical flight: Check their devices or take in sights from the aircraft's windows. The video then shows the flight approaching the Dubai airspace, complete with the Burj Khalifa and the Emirate's skyline. The spacecraft then lands vertically at a port. As passengers disembark and head to the port, the flight takes off once again, presumably off to another destination.

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Quoting an interview with Yicheng Times, space.com reported that the company was developing a "winged rocket for high-speed, point-to-point transportation".

This would be "lower in cost than rockets that carry satellites and faster than traditional aircraft".

The report said that the company is planning ground tests by 2023, "with a first flight in 2024 and a crewed flight in 2025".

"Even more ambitiously, a test flight of a global, or orbital, crewed space vehicle is planned by 2030, the company says. Space Transportation was founded in 2018, according to the company's website," the space.com report said.

sahim@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE