Completing two rounds of financing in one month, the manned space company "Time Traveler" has signed contracts with over 10 space tourists, and the production of its first test capsule has begun | Exclusive from Yingke

Author | Huang Nan

Editor | Peng Xiaoqiu

Yingke has learned that Beijing Transcender Manned Space Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Transcender") recently completed an over - subscribed Angel + round of financing. This round was additional invested by TusStar Ventures, which is also an over - subscribed financing the company obtained within nearly a month after the tens of millions of Angel + round financing from Binfu Capital and Zhongtian Huifu.

Transcender is an enterprise that Yingke has been following for a long time. The company was established in January 2023. As one of the few domestic enterprises with the full - scale, full - process R & D, development and operation capabilities in commercial manned spaceflight, it focuses on the R & D of reusable manned spacecraft and the operation of space tourism, and is committed to building China's "Dragon" spacecraft to send people and goods for the country and commercial purposes at low cost.

Currently, the industry perception of space tourism is undergoing a structural leap. As international enterprises such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic continue to increase the launch frequency, and the breakthrough of reusable spacecraft has significantly reduced the cost of a single flight, space tourism is gradually expanding from a luxury experience exclusive to the wealthy to a broader high - end consumer market.

Just this month, Justin Sun, a Chinese - Grenadian, completed a sub - orbital space flight, and the related topic quickly topped the hot search list on social platforms. This "celebrity effect" is also accelerating the market education process. More and more individual consumers are starting to regard space travel as an achievable consumption option, and the industry has entered a strategic window period of "transition from technology implementation to market explosion".

Justin Sun completed a sub - orbital space flight

The 2025 Government Work Report of the State Council pointed out that commercial spaceflight has been adjusted from a "future industry" to a "strategic emerging industry". Among them, as the core application scenario of the future commercial spaceflight track, space tourism will become a new growth pole of the space economy. It can not only create a market - based incremental space worth trillions, but also provide important support for local economic development and industrial agglomeration.

According to reports from Polaris Market Research and other institutions, the global space tourism market size reached 840 million US dollars in 2023, and it is expected to exceed 1 billion US dollars by 2030, with an annual compound growth rate of up to 35%.

Specifically in terms of product and commercialization evolution paths, Transcender has formulated a "three - step" development roadmap. In the first stage, it will take 3 - 4 years to complete the R & D of the sub - orbital manned spacecraft Transcender No. 1 (CYZ1), enabling ordinary people and commercial payloads to enter space at low cost and on a regular basis. In the second stage, it plans to launch the near - earth orbit manned spacecraft Transcender No. 2 (CYZ2) within 6 - 10 years, and achieve rendezvous and docking of target vehicles and point - to - point transportation for the construction of space hotels and intercontinental rapid transportation, subverting the long - distance travel and transportation mode. In the third stage, it will take 12 - 15 years to develop the deep - space exploration manned spacecraft Transcender No. 3 (CYZ3), carry out commercial manned lunar travel, and build a lunar - earth economic circle.

Transcender No. 1 (CYZ1) sub - orbital manned spacecraft

Currently, the Transcender No. 1 (CYZ1) spacecraft has entered the engineering R & D stage, and the production of the first test cabin has started. It has completed the first active thermal protection technology verification in China's commercial spaceflight to improve the spacecraft's reusability and reduce the thermal protection cost. In the second half of this year, Transcender plans to conduct the first full - scale manned spacecraft landing buffer test in China's commercial spaceflight to verify the effectiveness of the landing system design. By 2026, the company will carry out the zero - height escape test of the manned spacecraft to verify the overall plan of the manned spacecraft and the key technologies of escape and life - saving.

Lei Shiqing, the founder and CEO of Transcender, said, "As a carrier directly connecting humans and space, the manned spacecraft naturally has interactive attributes and cultural and tourism values. With the manned spacecraft technology as the core high - ground and 'ordinary people going to space' as the IP core, Transcender is building a multi - level commercial ecological base covering space health care, space training, space cultural and tourism, space education, and space cultural and creative products."

Yingke has learned that currently Transcender has signed contracts with more than 10 space tourists in total, including Li Licheng, an 84 - year - old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Liu Baiqi, the founder of Galaxy Power, and its customers are all over the world. The company also plans to establish a space tourist club community and hold a press conference in the second half of the year, and build a series of ground experience projects, including space health care and space training.

Comments from investors:

Liu Bo, the general manager of TusStar Ventures said that space tourism is the most explosive growth pole in the commercial spaceflight track. We firmly believe in this historical opportunity, so we are also looking for a team with both the ability to explore dreams and the ability to execute. Transcender meets our requirements very well and is a scarce benchmark - type manned spaceflight team in China. On the one hand, it has profound technical accumulation and engineering experience in manned spaceflight. On the other hand, it can make forward - looking arrangements for the commercialization path and show excellent insights in market demand insight and ecological construction, and has carried out effective exploration. TusStar Ventures' additional investment is precisely targeted at its scarce value driven by the "hardcore technology + commercial ecosystem" dual - wheel. We have great confidence in the Transcender team and look forward to Transcender realizing the dream of "ordinary Chinese people going to space" as soon as possible.