Agreement Reached To Offer Three Soyuz Seats Beginning In
2013
Commercial spaceflight company Space Adventures said Wednesday
it has concluded an agreement with the Federal Space Agency of the
Russian Federation (FSA) and Rocket Space Corporation Energia (RSC
Energia) to commercially offer three seats on the Soyuz spacecraft
bound for the International Space Station (ISS), beginning in
2013.
These seats will be made available through the increase of Soyuz
production, from four to five spacecraft per year. Each flight will
be short duration, approximately 10 days, and will contribute to
the increase of launch capacity to the ISS.
"We are extremely excited to announce this agreement and would
like to thank our Russian partners in increasing Soyuz production
and providing Space Adventures these well sought-after
transportation services on the only commercially available manned
spacecraft currently in operation," said Eric Anderson, Chairman of
Space Adventures. "Since Guy Laliberte's mission, there has been an
increase of interest by private individuals, organizations and
commercial entities seeking ways to access the space station. We
have been speaking with these parties about science, education and
multi-media programs and hope to make some major announcements in
the coming year."
Space Adventures became world-renowned 10 years ago with the
launch of Dennis Tito, the world's first privately-funded space
explorer. Since then, the company has arranged seven additional
missions to the ISS. Cumulatively, our clients have spent almost
three months in space, traveling over 36 million miles, and have
been true ambassadors in sharing their experience and explaining to
millions of people around the world why it's important to explore
space," continued Mr. Anderson.
Soyuz Spacecraft
"We are very pleased to continue space tourism with Space
Adventures. Also, the addition of a fifth Soyuz spacecraft to the
current manifest will add flexibility and redundancy to our ISS
transportation capabilities. We welcome the opportunity to increase
our efforts to meet the public demand for access to space," said
Alexei Krasnov, Director of Human Spaceflight of FSA.
In support of the continued partnership between FSA, Energia and
Space Adventures, Vitaly Lopota, President of RSC Energia,
commented, "We were first in the space tourism marketplace and we
are glad to expand our capabilities by adding a fifth Soyuz and to
use these three additional opportunities for commercial flight
participants, starting in 2013."
Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the
world's first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna,
Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such
as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the
International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity
flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and
reservations on future suborbital spacecraft. The company's
advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle
astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm
Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, and
Skylab/Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott.