A Chinese company is developing a supersonic jet capable of traveling from New York to China in just one hour (via Robb Report). The company behind the jet is Space Transportation. It says that it is developing a “rocket with wings”, which will work for space tourism and point-to-point travel.
A Chinese company is developing a supersonic jet with unreal travel times
The supersonic jet traveling over the Earth as shown in Space Transportation’s video presentation. Image source: Space Transportation
Space Transportation says that its jet will be lower cost than the rockets that are used to carry satellites into space. It will also be much faster than traditional planes.
To showcase the speed it hopes to achieve, Space Transportation has included a video on its website. In the video, several passengers climb aboard the supersonic jet. The jet then turns vertically towards the sky and launches into the air. After several seconds of flight, the launch boosters fall away, returning safely to the launch pad where they can be used again later.
The jet then continues its trek through the clouds and its suborbital journey, eventually traveling 7,000KM to its destination in the span of 60 minutes. The craft shown in the video is impressive, and the speed at which it travels is even more impressive.
Space Transport plans to run ground tests by 2023. It hopes to commence a first flight of the supersonic jet in 2024, and a crewed flight later in 2025. These plans are ambitious, but the company isn’t stopping there. It also says that it hopes to run a test flight of a crewed space vehicle by 2030.
Space Transport isn’t the only company looking into space tourism
A CGI representation of Space Transportations supersonic jet as showcased on the company’s website. Image source: Space Transportation
Space tourism has become a hot topic as of late. Especially after NASA shared hopes that space would open to more people by 2030 when it announced its plan to crash the ISS earlier this year. So it isn’t that surprising to see Space Transportation jumping on board and working towards a supersonic jet.
Other companies like Virgin Galactic have already conducted fully crewed suborbital flights in the past. Elon Musk’s SpaceX also shared plans previously to create a suborbital flight system. SpaceX hasn’t talked about those plans anymore, though, so we’re unsure if it would work similarly to the supersonic jet that Space Transportation is working on, or if SpaceX might take a different approach.
All in all, the future of space tourism, and space transport itself is something we can expect to see a lot of companies striving for. With plenty of big companies pushing for the future of travel, we should lack options when it comes to supersonic jets capable of taking us around the world at unbelievable speeds.
