BlockBeats news: On January 23, the Beijing Voyager Manned Space Technology Co., Ltd. announced that its "Voyager One (CYZ1)" is expected to conduct its first crewed flight in 2028. Currently, there are more than ten paying space tourists, and Chinese actor Huang Jingyu has become the 009-numbered space tourist. Regarding this first domestic crewed spaceflight, users have asked about the technical challenges and market potential of "space travel."
Regarding this issue, Justin Sun, founder of TRON, gave his first response in an 8,000-word post on Zhihu. He stated that he had traveled to space aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard (NS-34 mission) on August 3, 2025. Regarding China's domestic commercial crewed spacecraft program, he believes it marks the transition of space travel from an "experience for a select few" toward a "reality accessible to more people."
When discussing the market's future, Sun Yucheng pointed out that space tourism may still be seen as a "luxury" or "gimmick" in the short term. However, if the industry can transform flight experience into manufacturing, operations, talent development, and standardized systems, it could potentially expand into broader applications such as microgravity experiments, material and pharmaceutical research, and payload testing. He emphasized that safety and compliance must always be the top priorities. Sun Yucheng expressed that for China's commercial space industry, he "wants it to move quickly, but even more, to move steadily." He also called on the market to provide more patience and understanding for engineering efforts, testing, and failure analysis, beyond just focusing on ticket prices and public attention, in order to truly advance sustainable space exploration.
In the article, Sun Yuchen expressed that his longing for space originated from a sense of belonging to the deep cosmos during his childhood. The launch of Shenzhou-5 in 2003 made him realize that "reaching the sky" was not just science fiction, but a realistic path that could be achieved. After reserving a seat on a scheduled flight, he endured a long four-year wait, and finally embarked on the journey on August 3, 2025. The author believes that the $28 million he paid was not a mere transaction, but rather a kind of fated "arrival." After experiencing pre-launch anxiety so intense that it caused frequent bathroom visits, the sensation of weightlessness during the flight, and upon landing, enduring facial distortion and breathing difficulties due to 5.5G overload, he finally landed safely. He stated: space travel is not a romantic adventure, but a cold and realistic engineering marvel.