Japanese
entrepreneur Daisuke 'Dice-K' Enomoto is officially confirmed to become the
world's fourth space tourist later this year, Space Adventures announced today.
The
Virginia-based company also confirmed that X Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari will
be Enomoto's official backup, putting her in line to become the world's first
paying female space tourist.
Currently,
the two are undergoing training together at the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center, also known as "Star City," said Space Adventures'
president and CEO Eric Anderson.
"Their
training is going great so far and they're both fantastic clients," Anderson told SPACE.com.
Enomoto is
scheduled to join the 14th Expedition Crew which also includes NASA
astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. The
flight is tentatively scheduled for a September 15th launch, Anderson said.
In addition
to Ansari, the backup crew named to support the Soyuz TMA-9 mission includes
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. No
date has been set yet for Ansari's flight.
Rumors had
been circulating in Russian media
reports since mid-March that Ansari would be the backup, but the official
announcement was made only today.
"We
just decided to delay the announcement until such time as the crew was
officially named," Anderson said.
According
to Anderson, Ansari first expressed interest in
becoming Enomoto's backup a few months ago.
"Anousheh
and I first discussed the idea of her becoming part of the backup crew last
October," he said.
Ansari is
perhaps best known for helping to provide the seed money for the Ansari X Prize spaceflight
competition, which offered $10 million to the first team to build and launch a
privately-funded, piloted spacecraft to suborbital space and back twice in two
weeks. That contest was won by Burt Rutan's SpaceshipOne
in June of 2004.
The Ansari
family recently partnered with Space Adventures to develop the tourism
company's Explorer spacecraft for suboribital flights from Singapore
and the United
Arab Emirates.
Space
Adventures is the company responsible for brokering a series of flights to the
International Space Station for high-paying entrepreneurs, beginning in 2001
with U.S. businessman Dennis Tito. South African
entrepreneur Mark
Shuttleworth followed in 2002, with U.S. scientist and businessman Gregory
Olsen launching in 2005. Each of those flights, like Enomoto's, carried a
reported cost of about $20 million.
Like his
predecessors, Enomoto will spend about one week aboard the ISS before returning
to Earth. Space Adventures officials have also announced that former Microsoft software
developer Charles
Simonyi is also set to visit the ISS. Anderson said that it's also possible
that Ansari will fly on a future mission even if Enomoto makes his flight.
"If
and when Anousheh decides to fly on an orbital mission, we will be very proud
to announce that," he said.
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