Space Adventures Soyuz tickets stuck in US/Russia negotiations
Jan 25, 2005 18: 02 EST
Negotiations are taking place between the United States and Russia over crew transport services to the International Space Station. The 3 passenger Soyuz spacecraft, is currently the only vehicle that has been ferrying crewmembers to and from the ISS and Russia wants to keep as many seats as possible available to sell commercially - to Space Adventures, who already put American Dennis Tito and entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth in Space.
Steady flow of Space seats for sale
SA has reserved four more Soyuz seats and if a proposal favored by NASA works out, Space Adventures may soon find itself with a steady flow of Soyuz seats for sale, reports Washington Times.
"As soon as shuttle flights resume and the station returns to three-person station crews -- crew size was clipped by one to stretch supplies while the fleet is grounded -- NASA wants to barter rides to the station, trading Russia a seat on the shuttle for one on Soyuz. Managers are proposing to use the shuttle to ferry one station crewmember to the outpost mid-way between ongoing long-duration missions. The plan would permanently free one seat aboard every Soyuz flight for Russia to sell commercially - for $20 million each seat.
Let's get the entire rocket!
In addition, Space Adventures is working on a plan for an all-commercial Soyuz flight to the station. Anderson said the private missions would allow participants greater control over what they do in space and how long they stay. The cost of two seats is about $50 million. The third seat would be filled by a professional Soyuz pilot," reports the news source.
Space Adventures is the only company currently accepting deposits from suborbital clients, currently totaling over $2,000,000 (USD).
Founded in 1998 by Eric Anderson, born in 1974 in Denver, Colo., currently the president and CEO. Previously, Eric was the co-founder of Starport.com, an astronaut-endorsed space education and entertainment web site (Starport.com was sold to SPACE.com in June 2000). He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Virginia, with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering.
Image of a Soyuz simulation, courtesy SpaceAdventures.
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