The increasing prospect of space tourism has prompted the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, to look into the development of a gigantic spaceplane. The state-backed firm announced this at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

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According to New Scientist, the Academy plans to first design a simpler, smaller, one-piece version of the space plane that will take five passengers up 100 kilometers. Its design would later be scaled up to carry up to 20 passengers per flight up to 130 kilometers. This is significantly more than the carrying capacity of any other commercial space plane to date, academy rocket scientist Lui Haiquang commented.

China's upcoming space plane would look like a hybrid between a jet aircraft and a rocket and will blast off with the support of its own power. The spaceship will be reusable up to 50 times and may initially fly to closeby regions, then to the further expanses of space and finally proceed back down to Earth.

The academy will have plenty of competition from many names in the game including Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane that will take six customers to near-space, and XCOR, whose planned Lynx carrier will operate a private spacecraft with a single-tourist seated with a pilot. Blue Origin's suborbital space capsule, New Shepard, will carry six tourists.

Keeping in line with the competitive nature of Chinese technology, the cost of a seat in the Chinese space plane is expected to be between $200,000 to $250,000.  The Academy said that its flying experiments would be completed within a couple of years.

Academy team leader Han Pengxin and his associates maintain that customer interest in space tourism will be high enough to support the creation of a much large-sized capsule. The team reiterated that "More and more common persons are interested in the experience of space flight," adding that the project is "very attractive" to corporations and businessmen.