A Chinese start-up is developing a hypersonic spaceplane that will ferry passengers from one country to another with suborbital flights.
The ambitious project is called Space Transportation and is being developed by Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology.
It will transform the travel industry if successful. For example, it would allow passengers from Beijing to reach Dubai in an hour, instead of the nine hours it takes on a regular aircraft.
Although the idea is not new – there are a few other companies attempting to achieve the task – this start-up is making notable progress, with ground tests expected to take place in 2023.
Last year, the company managed to secure $62 million in funding for its projects through a Shanghai-level industrial investment fund, the Silk Road Golden Bridge and Tianqi Venture Capital.
“The product of Lingkong Tianxing is a high-speed aircraft. Imagine, in less than two hours, we can fly from the eastern hemisphere to the western hemisphere,” said Zuo Lingye, partner at Jingwei China, one of the investment partners of the start-up.
“This may be the next generation of aircraft that will have a major impact on global passenger transport and logistics.”
Futuristic travel
An animation on the company’s website shows passengers boarding a spaceplane in Beijing spaceport.
The vehicle detaches from a rocket-powered wing once it is high enough – similar to the technique Virgin Galactic uses for its suborbital flights.
Except, this one takes off vertically and can go up to speeds of 10,000 kilometres per hour, as it travels 7,000 kilometres across the edge of space and over to the Middle East in only 60 minutes.
It lands vertically on a spaceport in Dubai, using legs that unfold as it touches down.
Passengers would be able to book their spaceflight tickets though an app and use it as a boarding pass.
The rocket-powered wing is reusable and would return to the point of lift-off after the spaceplane detaches from it.
Timeline
The company is planning to carry out ground tests in 2023 and to stage an un-crewed flight test in 2024. By 2025, a crewed flight test would take place.
It is hoped that the first commercial flight would take place by 2030.
China has been carrying out launch tests of suborbital and orbital vehicles from the Jiuqan Satellite Launch Centre since 2020.
Progress in suborbital travel
So far, only Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have successfully carried out crewed suborbital commercial flights. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has sent tourists to orbit and to the International Space Station.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flew towards the edge of space last summer, with company owner Richard Branson on board the first flight.
Experiences on both of the spaceships involves a few minutes of weightlessness before they land back near to where they lifted-off from.
Blue Origin's New Shepard flight takes off vertically and goes higher than SpaceShipTwo, crossing the Karman Line, the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and the beginning of space.
A few years ago, Virgin Galactic had said that it would be able to ferry passengers from one country to another, using spaceports that would be built in different parts of the world.
The company uses its Spaceport America launch pad in New Mexico for its current launches, although authorities had grounded their flights after the first and only suborbital flight in the summer went off-path.
It is expected that operations would resume by the end of this year, with ticket sales now re-opened to the public.
An agreement between Abu Dhabi Airports and Virgin Galactic was signed in 2019 to build a spaceport in Al Ain airport, however, no updates have been provided since.
Last year, the UAE Ministry of Economy and Blue Origin agreed to explore ways to develop a space tourism market in the Emirates, including a spaceport.
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
THE BIO:
Favourite holiday destination: Thailand. I go every year and I’m obsessed with the fitness camps there.
Favourite book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It’s an amazing story about barefoot running.
Favourite film: A League of their Own. I used to love watching it in my granny’s house when I was seven.
Personal motto: Believe it and you can achieve it.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
T10 Cricket League
Sharjah Cricket Stadium
December 14- 17
6pm, Opening ceremony, followed by:
Bengal Tigers v Kerala Kings
Maratha Arabians v Pakhtoons
Tickets available online at q-tickets.com/t10
360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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