Space Tourism? Space Adventures Says Yes!

Space Adventures' Eric Anderson, says basically in the commercial below, you give him 150 million and he will send you to the Moon. Quite literally! Anderson's company has made a name for itself by flying rich customers to the ISS for upwards of 20 million is serious about the Moon adventure. They plan on using the work horse Russian Soyuz along with a modified Proton/habitat module to fly two paying customers plus a Russian Cosmonaut in a six day out and back flight similar to Apollo 13's flight path.

Check out the Boing Boing article here

Space Adventures being sued

Daisuke Enomoto has wanted to go into space since he was a child. The Japanese internet tycoon paid $21 million to become the first space tourist to walk outside the International Space Station. He was well on his way to realizing the dream until it all came crashing down around him. Daisuke will not be leaving mother Earth, now Daisuke wants he 21 mil back. Space Adventures is the private firm with connections to the Russian Federal Space Agency that was supposed to handle the preparation for the flight, but The Virginia company scuttled Enomoto's space journey to the Russian section of the station after he refused to cough up more money. They cited his purported ill health as the reason to renig on the contract. Enomoto lawsuit claims that Space Adventures repeatedly pestered him to invest, and that the company took his money without ever having permission by the Russians or the 15 other members of the International Space Station to participate in an EVA.

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Space Adventures Charters Entire Russian Spacecraft

Can you believe this?! Yep, seems it is true! According to a recent article in popsci.com: To celebrated its ten-year anniversary Space Adventures, (the group that brokered the first tourist flights to space) announced that it had negotiated a deal with the Russian Federal Space Agency to buy an entire flight to the International Space Station. That's right, not just one seat, but the entire flight will be taken up by space tourists. A professional Russian cosmonaut will command the flight for two ticket-paying passengers some time in late 2011. (Soyuz as you know can only carry three people) From then on, Space Adventures plans to fly one charter flight to the International Space Station a year through the station's operational life. RKA will add new spaceships to its manifest rather than bumping existing flights. (you got to think about this for a second....this puts the vaunted NASA on the same level as Space Adventures, basicly buying seats from the Russians. *sigh*) Indications are that a tourist space walk and trip to the moon are in the planning stages - flown by the Russian Federal Space Agency and brokered by Space Adventures. (I hate to even think this, but with exciting stuff like this happening, NASA appears to be dead and to stupid to lay down. NASA is doing some great science, but leaving this huge gap in their manned program shows that they are event driven, advancing in spirts. The Russians have been steady throughout the last 40 plus years. Simplistic yes, but who is buying seats from whom? )