Would You Pay 5.1M Yuan for a Trip to Space?
Friday, September 18, 2026216 words3 minutes622 reads
Ctrip’s listing of a Virgin Galactic package for 5.1 million yuan shows how space tourism is being sold more like luxury travel. The six-day experience is planned for 2027 in New Mexico. It includes preparation and accommodation during the program, but it does not include a customer’s international flights, visas or insurance.
The flight itself is suborbital: it reaches the edge of space but does not enter orbit around Earth. A carrier aircraft releases the spaceship at about 45,000 feet. Its rocket motor then accelerates the craft to roughly three times the speed of sound. Passengers may float in weightlessness for several minutes, then the vehicle returns through the atmosphere and glides to a runway.
Virgin Galactic has carried paying customers before, but VSS Unity made its final commercial flight in June 2024. The company is developing Delta Class spacecraft designed for more frequent flights. In August, it said the first Delta commercial service was expected in February 2027, with flight testing beginning in October 2026.
The listing does not make space travel a normal holiday. The price is enormous, training is required, and the time in weightlessness is short. Still, the product puts a private spaceflight beside more familiar travel choices, showing how access to space is changing for a very small group of travelers.
