Alibaba Taobao, owner of the AliExpress marketplace, announced cooperation with the Beijing company Space Epoch. The goal of the project is to develop a reusable cargo rocket capable of delivering up to 10 tons of goods anywhere in the world in just one hour. This was reported by tochka.by with reference to Reuters.
The new technology will speed up the delivery of parcels from AliExpress and other goods using a 120 cubic meter container.
The rocket will be based on Space Epoch's Yuanxing-1, which has already undergone engine testing in 2023. Missile delivery tests are planned for the near future, but exact dates have not yet been announced.
Space Epoch acknowledges that implementing the project in the short term will be challenging.
Among the key challenges: creating the infrastructure of spaceports around the world, coordinating the flight program with the authorities of different countries, as well as calculating the economic feasibility and finding insurance companies willing to work with such a risky project.
