MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Moscow is preparing to send more space tourists rocketing into orbit next year and a South African businessman is already in training to go, the head of Russia's space agency said on Thursday.
Yuri Koptev, general director of Rosaviakosmos, said Russia would send two Soyuz ``taxi'' ships to the International Space Station (ISS) next year and ``one or two seats will be sold to non-professional cosmonauts,'' Itar-Tass news agency reported.
Earlier this year, U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito paid Russia a reported $20 million for an eight-day trip of a lifetime to the ISS to become the first paying cosmic tourist.
South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, 27, is among those queuing up to follow Tito, Koptev told a news conference.
Koptev said a contract had not yet been signed with the South African, but that he was undergoing training and his flight could take place either in April 2002 on the first Soyuz ``taxi'' or in September 2002 on the second one.
RTR state television showed the former Internet executive undergoing training at Star City, just outside Moscow.
For two weeks Shuttleworth has been put through his paces with four hours of Russian classes, four hours of practical training and a couple of hours of physical exercise every day.
"This is a dream I've had for as long as I can remember,'' he told RTR, adding that his parents supported him 100 percent, although his mother thought he was mad at first.
He said he had met Tito in Los Angeles before coming to Russia to start training and said the American had been ``profoundly moved'' by his experiences in space.
Privileged
"I am privileged to be working on the same equipment as Russian cosmonauts such as (Yuri) Gagarin (the first man in space), and with the same professionals who trained them,'' Shuttleworth said.
RTR said the South African was due to return home for a while before starting the second stage of his training.
Tito's trip strained ties between Russia's cash-strapped space authorities and the U.S. space agency NASA, which said an amateur had no business in space, especially aboard the $95 billion International Space Station.
The Russians said that as a full partner in the ISS they had the right to send whoever they wanted there.
Tass quoted Koptev as saying there were now no issues affecting Russia's ties with its ISS partners. The ISS is backed by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.
Koptev said Rosaviakosmos was working with other Russian space groups to organise commercial space trips and that the money from these would be used to fund Russia's share of the ISS, Interfax reported.
Tass also quoted Koptev as saying Russia might increase its participation in construction and activity aboard the ISS, and that Rosaviakosmos was preparing a list of proposals to be considered at a meeting of the main space agencies of the ISS participating countries in October.
He said the member countries needed to determine how to progress with building the space station so that six cosmonauts could live and work onboard the craft by 2004.
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