Galactic getaway

Sir Richard Branson hugs designer Burt Rutan as they are surrounded by employees of Virgin Galactic. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's first private aerospace company, Link Space, received a 16 million yuan ($2.6 million) investment after its founder and CEO, 21-year-old Hu Zhenyu, successfully launched his first rocket from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region last year.

National enthusiasm for space travel has been fueled by the country's advancements in the field, from astronaut Yang Liwei's 2003 orbit around the planet to the recent soft landing of China's lunar probe - the world's first in 37 years, which made China the third country to achieve such a feat after the former USSR and the United States.

"China's space exploration has cultivated a group of Chinese with the dream to go into space," Du says.

Sheng plans to take the trip 103 kilometers above Earth's surface in 2016. Paying the full cost of about $100,000 up front gives him a better chance of catching an earlier flight, according to a lottery system used to distribute the seats. Those who pay a deposit of half the cost must wait longer.

The 103-km flights - which pass through the Karman line, the official edge of space - are expected to begin once XCOR's Lynx II begins commercial flights in about two years.

The Lynx I is scheduled to begin offering trips 61 km above the planet at the end of next year, at a cost of $95,000 per seat.

The lower-altitude trips will last about an hour, including roughly seven minutes in space during which passengers can see about a third of the Earth.

"It's God's view of our planet," Du says. "It's a life-changing experience."

He believes more people, especially Chinese, will undertake the flights because they're affordable to many and don't have stringent health requirements.

"You don't have to train like an astronaut," he says.

Most clients are male business owners, mainly entrepreneurs, aged 35 to 50, he says.

Chinese Mandopop vocalist and actor Han Geng has bought a ticket, completed training at NASA and acquired sponsors, Du says. Singer Deng Ziqi is also reported to have booked a flight.

Du believes private space journeys will become more commonplace among ordinary people as technology advances. "The ticket prices will decline and more people will go into space," he says.

"The sci-fi movie scenes we see will become part of real life. And China will become the biggest market."