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Cosmic travel could put plane compression socks straight out of business, leaving long-haul flights a thing of the past. After all, who would need ’em when you could nearly teleport from Tokyo to New York in under an hour? Japanese travel agency, Nippon Travel Agency Co. , announced this week that it plans to launch a high-speed, space-travel service that could connect Tokyo to U.S. cities in just 60 minutes. The project—in partnership with Tokyo-based reusable rocket startup, Innovative Space Carrier Inc.—aims to bring the first-of-its-kind feat to fruition in the 2030s. Once developed, the transport vehicle would launch from an offshore site and be able to link any two points on planet Earth within an hour. “We hope this business will be a new starting point to connect space travel and tourism,” Nippon Travel President Keigo Yoshida stated at a news conference. Serious adventure travelers can already start submitting advance applications for the program in 2026. But suborbital travel certainly isn’t for the faint of heart—or for just anybody just yet. Unsurprisingly, traveling on a reusable rocket still costs a pretty penny. A round-trip flight from Tokyo to U.S. cities like New York, for example, is expected to cost about 100 million yen (or just under $650,000 USD) per passenger. While the price is steep, the more technological advancements these kinds of companies make in the, well, outer space space, the more affordable this almost unthinkable level of travel will become. President of Innovative Space Carrier Inc., Kojiro Hatada, reportedly added that the company will strive to lower travel costs by increasing the number of flights possible in each vessel’s life span. The voyage through the void is still being conceptualized, but development is underway. For now, the innovative project plans to proceed in stages. It will first move forward with steps like tasting space food and touring ground facilities. Down the line in the 2040s, the project plans to also offer stays in orbit, giving stays “with a view” a whole new meaning. In other words: The most daring, thrill-seeking adventurers can really travel like (and amongst) stars with a truly stellar experience.
