Sun Yuchen's 8,000-word memoir of the space journey: You have to get what you want yourself

On January 23, Beijing ChuanYueZhe Manned Space Technology Co., Ltd. is expected to achieve the first manned flight of the “ChuanYueZhe No. 1 (CYZ1)” in 2028. Currently, there are more than ten paying space tourists, with Chinese actor Huang Jingyu becoming Space Tourist No. 009. Regarding this domestic spaceflight, a user inquired about the technical difficulty and market prospects of the “Space Journey.” In response, TRON founder Justin Sun wrote his first answer on Zhihu with 8,000 words. He stated that he had taken a space flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard (NS-34 mission) on August 3, 2025. Concerning the domestic commercial crewed spacecraft plan, he believes it marks the transition of space travel from “the experience of a few” to a “reality accessible to more people.” When discussing market prospects, Sun Yuchen pointed out that in the short term, space tourism may still be regarded as a “luxury” or a “gimmick,” but if the industry can consolidate flight experience into manufacturing, operation, talent, and standard systems, it is expected to expand into broader applications such as microgravity experiments, materials and drug development, and payload testing in the future. He emphasized that safety and compliance are always the prerequisites. Sun Yuchen stated that for China’s commercial space industry, “we hope it is fast, but more importantly, stable,” and called on the market to give more patience and understanding to engineering, testing, and failure reviews beyond just focusing on ticket prices and buzz, truly promoting space exploration toward sustainable development. In his article, Sun Yuchen expressed that the longing for space stems from childhood feelings of belonging to deep space, and that the launch of Shenzhou 5 in 2003 made him realize that “going to space” is not just science fiction but a feasible reality. After a long four-year wait following the scheduled flight, it finally took place on August 3, 2025. The author believes that the $28 million is not just a transaction but a “destination” of fate. After experiencing the anxiety and frequent bathroom visits before launch, weightlessness during the process, and challenges such as facial deformation and breathing difficulties during landing under 5.5G overload, he ultimately landed safely. He stated: space travel is not a romantic adventure but a cold, realistic engineering miracle.