In the 21st century, commercial space is an important engine for the economic development of the world space industry. Suborbital manned flight, as the commercial extension of manned space flight, reflects the characteristics of low cost, high reliability and good convenience, and is a hot track for commercial space pursuit. In this paper, the development status of suborbital manned flight in the world is investigated, and the three forms of suborbital manned flight are compared and analyzed from the aspects of feasibility, user demand and economic benefit. The result shows that manned spacecraft program is the most suitable development direction of suborbital manned flight; the subsequent of manned spacecraft needs to focus on the breakthrough of reusable rocket technology, escape rescue technology and non-destructive recovery technology.