Russia’s space agency will resume space tourism program on Wednesday after a decade of break.
Japanese billionaire tycoon Yusaku Maezawa is set to rocket to space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on Dec. 8 together with producer Yozo Hirano, who will film his mission, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin. The spacecraft will be piloted by 44-year-old Misurkin, who had been twice to the ISS.
Maezawa, the founder of Japan's largest online fashion mall and the country's 30th richest man, intends to share his moments in space with his 750,000 YouTube channel subscribers. The mission will allow the public to have a closer look at life on board the International Space Station
Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, had signed a deal with Space Adventures to carry two "spaceflight participants" to the International Space Station. From 2001 to 2009, Virginia-based Space Adventures had sent seven self-funded space tourists to the space station on eight space flights.
Space Adventures President Tom Shelley told National Post that a seat on the Russia spacecraft would cost in the range of $50 million to $60 million.
As Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX aim to take more space tourists into orbit, Russia has is planning to take more tourists to the ISS on future Soyuz missions. Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov had told the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta in Jan 2009 that Russia won’t be sending tourists to the international space station after this year because of plans to double the station’s crew from three to six people.
Speaking at a press conference on the opening day of the International Astronautical Congress in Dubai, Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin said a dedicated area on space stations for joyrides was required to minimise disruption to proper missions.
The Russian actress Yulia Peresild and the film director Klim Shipenko returned to Earth after spending 12 days aboard
Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko were aboard the ISS for filming the first feature-length drama with scenes shot in space. They were in Soyuz spacecraft together with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions.
A Russian space firm Orbital Technologies had announced that they would be launching a space hotel for tourists.
