"However, in this case, all Russia's flight program is falling apart. The organization of this flight requires additional financial investment, and it's a lot," Rosaviakosmos's director said. "In addition, he proposed an unclear payment procedure: he wants the Russian side to sign all the financial documents and only after that, as a citizen of South Africa, will he discuss with the government of his country the possibility of flying to the ISS with a Russian crew," Koptev said. "This is unacceptable to us," he said. The second mandatory condition of the contract was an unconditional guarantee for a free second flight to the ISS in case the Soyuz-TM could not dock with the station.

In addition, Shuttleworth did not want to use Russia's scientific flight program and proposed his own program with his own equipment, which caused considerable technical and legal problems, Koptev said.

Moreover, Koptev said there are considerable problems in negotiating the South African space tourist's flight with the ISS partners, because South Africa is not included in this group, and Shuttleworth insisted on flying as a representative of South Africa.

"One can name 12 items of this contract that are unacceptable to Russia," Koptev said.

Up until now, Shuttleworth has been training with a Russian space team as a private individual. He followed an individual program. In late August, he received medical permission to start special pre-flight training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

As a client of the Space Adventures, Shuttleworth's deal to fly into space aboard a Soyuz rocket is still being worked on, a Space Adventures official said. "What has been reported is not true," the spokesperson said.

However, another source close to the Russian Space Agency dealing with seats-for-sale, suggests that Russian space officials are "disillusioned" about Shuttleworth, to an extent that his chance of flying now remains in limbo. That prospect may change, however, said the source.