WASHINGTON — An American company has resumed marketing $20 million tourist trips to the international space station aboard Russian spacecraft in anticipation that the moratorium on such visits imposed in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident will be lifted by 2005.
Arlington, Va.-based Space Adventures Ltd. says it has reached agreement with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) and Rocket Space Corporation Energia to sell accommodations for two passengers on a station-bound Soyuz TMA capsule to be built explicitly for commercial purposes. The first two so-called space tourists, American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth, booked separate trips on Soyuz vehicles with official business at the international space station.
Space Adventures kicked off its marketing campaign with a June 18 announcement at the venerable Explorers Club in New York. Tito and Shuttleworth, both Space Adventure clients, were on hand for the announcement.
Eric Anderson, Space Adventures’ president and chief executive officer, told Space News that the company has 10 prospective clients for the planned mission and that a down payment has already been made to Rosaviakosmos and Energia of Korolev, Russia, for construction of the Soyuz capsule. He declined to specify how much money Space Adventures has transferred to Russia, but said that the travel company’s total financial commitment to the mission is "very significant."
Rosaviakosmos spokesman Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko confirmed in a June 20 phone interview that Space Adventures has made the down payment and that the money has reached Energia.
Mikhailichenko would not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.
Russian space agency officials have yet to bring a formal tourist mission proposal to NASA or its other space station partners for consideration, according to NASA spokeswoman Debra Rahn.
Although NASA has heard from Space Adventures about its plans, the U.S. space agency has yet to hear from Rosaviakosmos itself, Rahn said.
"Rosaviakosmos has not formally notified NASA or the other international partners yet about this proposal," Rahn said. "Until we receive more details about this specific proposal we really cannot make a judgement."
However, Rahn said NASA does not anticipate that Rosaviakosmos would ask to fly a commercial mission to the space station while the shuttle fleet remains grounded.
Mikhailichenko said Rosaviakosmos plans to officially notify its ISS partners, including NASA, of the planned tourist flight as soon as it becomes clear when exactly they would fly.
"We give priority to the relations with our ISS partners," Mikhailichenko said, adding that Rosaviakosmos will honor all agreed upon procedures for sending tourists to the station.
Shortly after the Feb. 1 Columbia disaster, NASA and its partners agreed to maintain the space station with a reduced crew of two until the space shuttle fleet resumes normal flight operations. NASA officials have said in recent weeks that they expect to return to flight by April 2004, if not earlier, but caution that the timing depends on the forthcoming recommendations of the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
Anderson counts himself among those eager to see the shuttle return to flight.
He also said he anticipates that NASA and the other partners will learn more about the proposal during interagency meetings later this summer and in the fall.
Once they learn more about what Space Adventures and the Russians have in mind, Anderson said, the partners will see that the proposed flight will be beneficial for all involved.
"Having the Soyuz production line well funded — and that is something NASA can’t do and they know it — is something that is to everybody’s benefit," Anderson said. One Soyuz mission carrying two tourists to the space station would put up to $40 million into the coffers of cash-strapped Rosaviakosmos and Energia.
With the shuttle fleet grounded, the burden of supporting the space station has fallen on Russia, which insists it does not have the money to build the additional Soyuz crew capsules and Progress cargo ships that are necessary. Europe, Canada and Japan are looking for ways to help Russia provide the additional logistical support, but it is not clear whether they can come through with the funds.
NASA, meanwhile, is unable to provide any financial assistance because of a U.S. law that prohibits buying space station-related hardware and services from Russia while its aerospace industry remains under suspicion of helping Iranian missile programs.
A senior NASA official told Congress June 11 that the space agency would seek a waiver from that law, the Iran Non Proliferation Act, only as "a last resort."
