Russia seals agreement with private investor for space tourism

SPACE TRAVEL

by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) July 2, 2008
The Russian space agency has sealed a deal with a private investor to build a Soyuz spacecraft specially for tourist hire and operational in 2011, a statement said Wednesday.

"We have concluded an agreement with an investor to begin financing such a Soyuz vessel with an anticipated launch date of 2011," the Roskosmos website stated.

The craft, piloted by a professional astronaut, is designed to carry two so-called space adventurers.

Quizzed by AFP, a Roskosmos spokesman refused to identify the investor despite the agency having signed a deal in June with private American company Space Adventures for a commercial flight to the International Space Station.

Set up in 2001, Space Adventures has already sent five tourists into space on board a Soyuz.

The firm has been in negotiations with Roskosmos to rent the third seat on board a ship which regularly ferries Russian and American astronauts to the ISS.

American Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen of the United States, Iranian-born Anousheh Ansari and Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi are the five who have each paid up to 25 million dollars (16 million euros) for the thrill of a lifetime.

The next independent space traveller is Richard Garriott, an American electronic games entrepreneur and son of former astronaut Owen Garriott. His flight is due to take off in October.

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

SPACE TRAVEL

Fly me to the Moon: Japan firm offers weddings in space

Tokyo (AFP) July 1, 2008
A Japanese firm on Tuesday began accepting reservations for couples who really want to make the big leap -- by blasting into space to exchange their wedding vows.

ROCKET SCIENCE ATK Receives Contract For US Air Force Sounding Rocket Contract SpaceX Conducts Static Test Firing Of Next Falcon 1 Rocket Pratt And Whitney Rocketdyne Contract Option For Solar Thermal Propulsion Rocket Engine NASA, ATK Conduct First Launch Abort System Igniter Test For Orion	LAUNCH PAD Inmarsat And ILS Set August 14 For Proton Flight With Inmarsat Satellite Russia Launches Rocket With Military Satellite Payload Integration Complete For Arianespace's Fourth Mission Of 2008 Successful Ariane 5 Solid Rocket Booster Test Firing
SHUTTLE NEWS Disaster plan in place for Hubble mission US space shuttle lands safely after installing Japanese lab Space shuttle cleared to land, loose object poses no risk Space shuttle blastoff damaged launch pad: NASA	STATION NEWS NASA plans two ISS spacewalks next week Shuttle astronauts bid farewell to space station crew Discovery undocks from ISS Shuttle Astronauts Bid Farewell To Space Station Crew
SPACE TRAVEL Russia seals agreement with private investor for space tourism Analex Awarded Three-Year Option On NASA Expendable Launch Vehicles Integrated Support NASA Goddard Has More Than A Dozen Exciting Missions In Next Year Fly me to the Moon: Japan firm offers weddings in space	DRAGON SPACE Shenzhou VII Research Crew Ready To Set Out For Launch Center China's Shot Heard Around The Galaxy A Better Focus On Shenzhou Gallup Poll Shows Americans Unconcerned About China Space Program
ROBO SPACE Eight Teams Taking Up ESA's Lunar Robotics Challenge Three Engineers, Hundreds of Robots, One Warehouse Tartalo The Robot Is Knocking On Your Door Sega, Hasbro unveil new dancing robot	MARSDAILY Mars Sample Return: The Next Step In Exploring The Red Planet Rain Showers On Mars Phoenix To Bake Ice-Rich Sample Next Week Phoenix Scrapes Almost Perfect Icy Soil For Analysis

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement