Russia suspends space tourism programme
23 Jan 2009
Russia will not be offering commercial services, or tourist travel, to the International Space Station after 2009, according to Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov. Charles Simonyi will be the last private space passenger when he blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in March.
Russia has so far flown six private citizens into space since 2001. The most recent passenger was video game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott, who paid $35 million for his ride to the space station.
Russia is putting an end to its share of space tourism primarily because the crew of the International Space Station is now expanding from three to six. According to MSNBC: "The space station crew is expanding to six largely to accommodate Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts who have been waiting years to live aboard the station their countries have helped create."
Space tourism will continue, however. Space Adventures, the American firm that handled the Russian space tourism deals intends to charter its own Russian rocket in 2011.
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is building SpaceShipTwo, an eight-seat ship that will give passengers a brief experience of weightlessness 62 miles above Earth for $200,000 a head.
