LONDON (Reuters) - It would be the ultimate tourist destination -- the Russian
Mir space station decked out as a luxurious resort orbiting 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Earth.
This is no James Bond fantasy. A group of investors has signed a $20 million deal to rent Mir and turn the aging space station into an out-of-this-world holiday spot and commercial laboratory.
"We're sending a mission up in March to knock on the door, switch on the lights and see how everything's going up there. It's a risky venture but we're feeling confident," said Jeffrey Manber, president of MirCorp, the company behind the venture which is due to be unveiled in London on Thursday.
But it doesn't come cheap. Space tourists will be asked to fork out $20 million a head to visit the outpost which measures five school buses in size.
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"We may even have a visitor in the first mission. He's a Russian
actor who's been in space training for many months but it's still a bit uncertain because he doesn't know if he's going to be able to raise the money in time," Manber told Reuters.
"Citizen explorers'' will travel aboard three-person Russian
Soyuz rockets to the space station which is expected to be able to accommodate five guests at a time.
Washington millionaire the brains behind the venture
The brains behind the venture is Washington millionaire
Walt Anderson who has drawn together a group of investors including venture capital firm Gold & Appel and internet investor Chirinjeev Kathuria to form Amsterdam-based MirCorp.
MirCorp -- which will spend up to $200 million to renovate the station -- is leasing Mir from former Russian state agency
RKK Energia, which also has a stake in the space venture.
"We want to draw other corporations into this as well. This is not just a hotel for the rich, it has many potential uses, from pharmaceutical experimentation and beaming live images back to Earth, to advertising and satellite repair," said Manber.
The 14-year-old station has
surpassed its expected five-year life span but is suffering from metal fatigue, corrosion and chemical contamination among other problems and it is estimated it will cost over $100 million a year to man and maintain it.
Mir was set to be dumped into the Pacific this year after being abandoned by its crew last August but was saved after Anderson paid $7 million to keep the empty station alive.
Manber accepts the project is risky. Mir suffered a near-deadly fire in 1997 and a crippling crash that forced one section to be sealed off because of a punctured hull.
"The mission could well go up in March and find it's not feasible. But we pretty much know from cameras much what the state of it is now and it's a wonderful view from up there," said Manber.
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