The next
space tourist bound for the International Space Station could launch as early
as September despite the lack of available seats aboard Russian spacecraft, the
private firm arranging the multimillion-dollar joyrides announced Friday.
Eric Anderson,
president and CEO of the Vienna, Va.-based space tourism company Space
Adventures, said there is a chance that a paying customer could ride
a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft to the station in a seat that is currently
reserved for a professional cosmonaut from Kazakhstan.
"In fact,
there is a possibility that one of Space Adventures' clients could launch on Soyuz
TMA-16, which is currently scheduled for launch this Sept. 30," Anderson told
reporters in a teleconference.
Anderson
said that the possibility is still unconfirmed, but his announcement comes
after recent reports by Russian and NASA officials claiming that space
tourist seats will be unavailable on Soyuz spacecraft for the next few
years once the International Space Station doubles its crew size up to six people
in late May.
Who
could fly?
Should the
September Soyuz seat become available, Space Adventures has alerted its
potential customers to the opportunity, Anderson added. The company has at
least two customers already trained for spaceflight: entrepreneur Esther Dyson -
the backup for
space tourist Charles Simonyi, who is in space today - and Australian
businessman Nik Halik, who served as the back up for the launch of American computer
game developer Richard Garriott last year.
Space
Adventures is currently the only firm offering tickets to orbital space for
paying customers. The company began arranging seats aboard Russia's three-seat
Soyuz spacecraft for private spaceflyers bound for the International Space
Station in 2001. Once the space station shifts to a six-person crew, Russia
will have to launch two separate, but fully crewed, Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts
and cosmonauts to and from the orbiting laboratory.
Anderson
said that aside from the September Soyuz launch, there is also a remote possibility
that other seats will be available for purchase on future Russian spacecraft
flying to the station before 2012, when Space Adventures plans to launch the
first all-private Soyuz mission to the orbiting lab.
"We have
reason to believe that from time to time, there may be sets of circumstances
that allow for a private citizen to be a spaceflight participant on one of
those flights," Anderson said. "It's too early to tell, but we do believe that
will be possible in the future."
Anderson
said the first all-private Soyuz mission, which would include two space
tourists and one professional cosmonaut commander, is on track for a 2012 launch.
It would require Russia's Federal Space Agency to build an additional Soyuz
vehicle beyond the four per year it must provide to support six-person station
crews.
The
repeat space tourist
Space
Adventures' seventh private spaceflight is currently in mid-flight, with American
billionaire Charles Simonyi aboard the space station on what is his second
orbital trek arranged by the company. Simonyi, 60, is paying about $35 million
for a 13-day spaceflight to the station.
The
Hungary-born computer software developer first
flew to the station in April 2007, paying more than $20 million for that
flight, which set a record for the world's longest space tourist flight. The
cost of private spaceflights has been increasing in recent years due to
inflation, and Anderson said he believes that trend will continue for the
foreseeable future.
"The costs
of the trip are definitely going up," Anderson said, attributing the rise to
increased demand and inflation. "I think that the cost will only get more
expensive for the Soyuz over time."
NASA and
Russia's Federal Space Agency announced today that the Soyuz ferrying Simonyi and
two professional astronauts back to Earth from the space station has been
delayed one day to April 8, extending his private spaceflight by one day
and tying his previous record-setting flight.
Russian space agency officials have said that Simonyi's flight will likely
be the last orbital space tourist flight for several years due to the planned
shift to larger, six-person crews later this year.
The space station has had a maximum permanent crew of three since 2000, when
the first astronauts and cosmonauts took up residence aboard the outpost. The
station's current three-man Expedition 19 crew - which launched last week with
Simonyi aboard - is expected to double in size in late May, when a second Soyuz
spacecraft is due to arrive with another three spaceflyers.
Anderson
said that Space Adventures customers are extremely dedicated and patient, and
willing to set aside funds to experience spaceflight even in the current economic
crisis.
"Someone
who's had a life dream is not going to let an economic downturn, even if it's a
longer one than we would have hoped, change their long-term objective,"
Anderson said, adding that Space Adventures is not immune to the current economic
climate. "Certainly the interest is still there, despite all the hardship."
Space
tourist Charles Simonyi is chronicling his second spaceflight on his website:
www.charlesinspace.com.
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