The space tourist class opens again, and this time it is a Soyuz spacecraft that will take off to the International Space Station in 2005 with two space tourists on it at the same time
Avi Blizovsky
The space tourist class opens again, and this time it is a Soyuz spacecraft that will take off to the International Space Station in 2005 with two space tourists on it at the same time.
This week an agreement was signed between Space Adventures, an adventure tourism company from the USA and the Russian company RSC Energy and the Russian space agency Rosviacosmos.
Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based Space Adventures, revealed details of the trip in which a professional Russian cosmonaut will fly a Soyuz spacecraft and the other two seats will be open to paying customers.
"We herald the return of space station tourism," Anderson said. "It is important that we get back on track with space tourism." said.
Tickets for the Soyuz spacecraft, which will be called Space Adventure 1 (SA-1), will be sold at a price of 20 million dollars per seat. This is the TMA model - the last model of the old Soyuz line.
For the first time, two paying tourists will be launched into space at the same time. "It will have an interest, for example a father and son, or a bride and groom.
The target date is early 2005. Space Adventures has been negotiating with the Russian space authorities over the past few months to finalize the details of the contract.
The two passengers on the first flight, which will be exclusively for tourists and will be outside the regular schedule of the space station, will have to train for several months in Russia. A typical trip will last ten days, of which the tourists will spend six to ten days aboard the space station.
The millionaire Dennis Tito, who became the first space tourist in April 2001, said that he believes that the Space Adventure mission is a logical continuation of space tourism, which will lead to a flight system that can be financed even without millionaires.
The second space tourist, the South African Mark Athelworth, also participated in the event via satellite.
The Russian space agency will now have to forward the proposal to NASA and the other partners on the space station. This is what NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn said. According to her, the company informed NASA about the negotiations with the Russians regarding a proposal for a commercial flight, but it still expects to hear from the Russians.
In any case, NASA does not expect the Russians to request a commercial flight to the space station as long as the shuttle fleet is grounded and the Soyuz spacecraft are the only connection to the station.
Anderson said that the partners for the space station have agreed on the conditions that will be required of the civilian passengers. The passengers of Space Adventures will choose according to these criteria, as well as according to their ability to finance the flight. Once the screening process is complete, the space station partners will be able to review the process and veto the decision.
Honeymoon in space - a dozen candidates will try to reach space on a private flight
One small step for man, one giant step for mankind, said astronaut Neil Armstrong when he first set foot on the dusty surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Since that moment, mankind has been advancing mainly in small steps in everything related to space, and sometimes also in tragic steps backwards, such as the disaster of the crash of The ferry Columbia on its crew.
While the world discovers with astonishment more and more details about the professional failure that preceded the Columbia crash, an American private company, with the Russian space agency Rasa, is about to take what it says is another "important step" in the history of space travel. This time it is a privately funded flight, the whole purpose of which is to send tourists to the International Space Station, which is being established and operated jointly by the United States and Russia.
True, there have already been two who have flown - the pioneer of space tourists, the American businessman Dennis Tito, who took off and returned in 2001, and the South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, who made the journey in 2002. They also did so using Russian launch vehicles, which allowed them to observe a sphere Haaretz from the point of view of the angels and stay at the International Space Station, for a sum of 20 million dollars per passenger.
The innovation this time, Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures (adventures in space), which organizes and initiates the flight, explained at a press conference, is that it is not a tourist joining as a hitchhiker a flight that was planned for other purposes, but a special launch purchased to take the pair of tourists into space. If you will, this is the first commercial flight to go outside the atmosphere. As with charter flights, the departure date is only approximate - sometime in early 2005
This time too, the intended tourists are required to have a strong stomach and a full wallet. The strength of the intestines will be tested not only in medical tests, but also in space training that will take place before the flight at the Russian "Star City" training center near Moscow. At the same time, they will have to pull out their wallets, leaving 20 million dollars for each passenger, before being flown to the Russian launch base in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, from where they will be launched into space. The entire journey will last eight to ten days, of which six days will be spent in the space motel, the joint space station.
The partner in the management of the station at Marumim, the American space agency, NASA, has in the past shown a cold to the point of hostility towards the guests who arrived in space with Russian assistance. Before the flight of the first space tourist, Dennis Tito was not allowed to enter the NASA facilities on the ground, to prepare for the flight. Last year, Washington's attitude toward millionaire space trips improved a bit, but just to be safe, NASA issued guidelines regarding the identity of the people who would be able to enter the space station. According to the rules, the space tourist must be free of any criminal or dubious background, clean of involvement in fraud, free of drugs or abnormal consumption of alcohol and unaffiliated with organizations that may harm the public's trust in the space station. In short: criminals and mobsters are asked to stay on the ground.
Who will still take advantage of the new invitation to space? CEO Anderson says that there are already about a dozen candidates who are undergoing tests before the selection. "We would be very happy if the two who go out are father and son," Anderson said at a press conference, "and maybe even a bride and groom, who go on a honeymoon in space."
