Space Adventures, the private company that facilitates tourist flights to space, had two related announcements yesterday.
First, and most headline grabbing, is that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has put a $5 million deposit down for a future flight into space. With the deposit, Brin becomes the first “Founding Explorer” in Space Adventures’ new Orbital Mission Explorers Circle. The program allows would-be spaceflight participants to put up a smaller deposit (they’ve never officially announced the price of a flight, but estimates range from $20 to $40 million), and receive “priority access to participate in future orbital space missions,” in other words, they’re not locked into a specific flight yet.
Brin said “I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space. Space Adventures helped open the space frontier to private citizens and thus pave the way for the personal spaceflight industry. The Orbital Mission Explorers Circle enables me to make an immediate investment while preserving the option to participate in a future spaceflight.”
In a related announcement, Space Adventures announced an agreement with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) to fly the first private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), expected to launch in the second half of 2011. FSA is the organization which launches the Soyuz flights. The first five space tourists have all ridden the third seat on already-scheduled missions to the ISS, but with the retirement of the space shuttle scheduled for 2010, those seats will be filled with official ISS crewmembers. Space Adventures’s private spaceflight will be a fully dedicated mission of the Soyuz-TMA spacecraft with two seats available for their customers. It will include a comprehensive package of mission services including science, education, and media program options.
“We are very pleased to continue working with Space Adventures into the foreseeable future. This method for growing our commercial partnership with Space Adventures is beneficial for all parties. The Soyuz to be used for this mission shall be a specially manufactured craft, separate from the other Soyuz vehicles designated for the transportation of the ISS crews,” said Alexey B. Krasnov for the FSA. “This private mission, flying two Space Adventures’ clients at once, will not interfere with the implementation of the ISS program or the obligations of the Russian space agency; on the contrary, it shall add flexibility and redundancy to our ISS transportation capabilities.”
Space Adventures first came to public consciousness when it arranged Dennis Tito’s flight in 2001. Currently, their sixth orbital spaceflight client, Richard Garriott (son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott) is in cosmonaut training for his launch, which is scheduled for 12 October 2008.
Space Adventures’ President and CEO Eric Anderson said “For the last decade, Space Adventures’ orbital spaceflight program has provided the only opportunity for private individuals to fly in space, conduct research in a sustained zero gravity environment and experience the beauty of seeing the Earth from humanity’s only orbiting outpost. We have had the pleasure of fulfilling the dreams of the only five private space explorers in history, and now, I am pleased to announce that our orbital program is expanding with more opportunities for spaceflight missions into the next decade.”