A $21 million dispute over a space tourism trip that never
happened is set for a Nov. 21 hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.
Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto is suing Vienna,
Va.-based Space Adventures to recoup $21 million he paid for a flight to the
International Space Station before he was medically
disqualified because of kidney stones. Space Adventures commercially markets
spaceflights on Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft in partnership with the Russian
Space Agency.
Three weeks before Enomoto was scheduled to lift off aboard
a Soyuz, a Russian medical team said he was not qualified for spaceflight,
despite being cleared two weeks earlier, according to his lawsuit.
The lawsuit implies Enomoto was replaced by a Space Adventures
investor because he refused to commit to future investments and demanded a
refund for money he spent on a spacewalk before changing his mind.
Space Adventures denies Enomoto's accusations, saying he is
a successful businessman who should have understood the contract only
guaranteed a refund if Space Adventures or the Russian Space Agency failed to
produce a spaceflight or defaulted on the contract. The company could not have
foreseen a reoccurrence of kidney stones, and Enomoto also knew about his
medical condition, Space Adventures attorneys said in their motion to dismiss
the lawsuit.
In a written statement, the company said there are no
guarantees in the risky business of spaceflight. "Because withdrawal from
flight at the last moment might mean Space Adventures would lose the
opportunity to resell the seat, or have to sell it at a very low price, a
Client is not entitled to a refund, and is liable for the full amount of the
contract once he has reached a specified point in the process," the statement
said. "A Client cannot simply circumvent this provision by medical
disqualification, whether self-induced by failure to follow a medical regimen
or not. Medical status is a risk that is borne by the Client in this type of
contract."
Enomoto paid $14 million of the $20 million agreement for
the spaceflight and an additional $7 million for a
spacewalk he said was critical to his decision to continue with the space
mission. Enomoto argues Space Adventures misled him early on about the
likelihood of a spacewalk and pressed him to make payments that locked him into
the $20 million contract despite known problems with kidney stones dating back
to 2004.
The lawsuit also says Space Adventures took the unusual step
of naming
American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari to be his backup after her family invested in Space
Adventures, and notes the timing was in tandem with collapsing negotiations
over the spacewalk. Ansari replaced Enomoto when he was disqualified for the
September 2006 mission.
Space Adventures, in the prepared statement, said Enomoto
accepted months
of specialized training and made payments on the contract with full
understanding of the terms.
"He is not entitled to any refund and he must be held to pay
for the flight he did not take," the statement said.
Enomoto was to be the fourth space tourist to travel to the
International Space Station on a Russian-built Soyuz. He signed an agreement
with Space Adventures in November 2004 for the flight, and a NASA physician at
Johnson Space Center in Houston who evaluated him the same month identified his
kidney stones and a soft tissue mass at the base of his neck, his lawsuit says.
Doctors for the Russian Space Agency, physicians
representing five international space station partners and specialists in
Moscow, England and Japan continued to evaluate Enomoto during the next 21
months. Doctors said a benign brain mass posed no risk and treated him for the
kidney stones, according to the lawsuit.
Eric Anderson, president and chief executive of Space
Adventures, told Enomoto that doctors had reported Enomoto was not adhering to
subscribed treatment, according to Enomoto's lawsuit.
Enomoto alleges Space Adventures knew kidney stones would
disqualify him for a trip to the international space station, but "deceptively
and fraudulently" convinced him to continue making payments. Under terms of the
contract, Enomoto paid a $2 million nonrefundable down payment and was to make
three $6 million installments. Upon the first $6 million payment, the full
amount of the $20 million contract became nonrefundable.
Enomoto, however, charges that Space Adventures led him to
believe he would be able to conduct a spacewalk during his international space
station mission for an additional $10 million but produced three versions of a
contract addendum that he refused to sign. Enomoto objected to wording that
said the $10 million was nonrefundable and left the spacewalk decision entirely
to the Russian Space Agency. He believed the $7 million he paid for the
spacewalk should have been applied to the remaining $6 million he owed for the
spacewalk, according to the lawsuit.
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