U.S. Space Adventures to charter entire Russian Soyuz mission to Space Station

William Atkins
Friday, 04 July 2008 03:54

Science - Space

Space Adventures, whose first space tourist flight was in 2001, has brokered deals that have already sent five very wealthy persons into space and onto the International Space Station.

These five people—who each paid between 20 and 30 million U.S. dollars for their trip—are American technology entrepreneur Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, American Greg Olsen, Iranian-born Anousheh Ansari, and Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi.

The next spaceflight participant is American Richard Garriott, an electronic gaming entrepreneur and son of former U.S. Skylab and space shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott.

Garriott is expected to be launched into space on October 12, 2008, in a RSA Soyuz capsule, along with Expedition 18 commander and NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Expedition 18 flight engineer and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

On October 23, 2008, Garrett is scheduled to return to Earth in a RSA Soyuz capsule with Expedition 17 commander and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkoy and Expedition 17 flight engineer and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko.

Space Adventures now expect to fly one charter double-space-tourist flight to the International Space Station per year through the station's operational life.

RKA states that it will build additional Soyuz spacecraft rather than take existing spacecraft that are being used now and in the future (past 2010) when NASA ends its travels to the ISS with its space shuttle fleet.

According to the Popular Science article, “What's next in commercial orbital spaceflight? Look for the first commercial space walks in the not-to-distant future, and, within the next five years, says Anderson, the first private mission to the moon, again flown by the Russian Federal Space Agency and brokered by Space Adventures.”

PopSci adds, “Anderson won't say how much his company will pay for the charter flights to the Space Station or how much tickets on it will cost, but tickets to fly around the back side of the moon and come back home without landing are set at $100 million each.”

Further information on the new RSA/Space Adventures deal is found on the Russian ITAR-TASS News Agency website, “Russia signs deal to design tourist spacecraft.’