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Russia sees end of road for space tourism
Moscow (AFP) Dec 27, 2007 Space tourists may have to seek alternative transport after 2009 due to a lack of room on the Russian capsule serving the International Space Station, Russia's space agency chief said Thursday. "It has to do with international agreements that stipulate that from 2009 the (ISS) crew must be made up of six people if Japanese and European scientific modules are launched," said Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov. "In this case there will be no room for space tourists," Perminov told a news conference, adding that space tourism making use of Russian vessels and the ISS would therefore be "rather problematic". "I'm afraid that from 2009, tourism as we see it today may be discontinued," he said. Perminov said demand for space travel, even at the astronomical prices currently charged, was already overwhelming Roskosmos's ability to provide seats. "When there is a possibility we agree to flights by space tourists. There are so many people who want to make such a trip that we cannot satisfy all requests," he added. US national Dennis Tito was the first space tourist on the ISS in 2001, followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002, American Greg Olsen in 2005, and Anousheh Ansari, an American of Iranian origin, in 2006. Hungarian-born American Charles Simonyi became the world's fifth space tourist in April this year, describing his 25-million-dollar trip as "terrific". Simonyi, the former Microsoft whizz kid who made his fortune helping develop the company's Word and Excel software, broke the record for space tourists by spending 14 days in space. Related Links Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News
Richard Branson Trains For Virgin Galactic Spaceflight At The NASTAR Center
Southampton PA (SPX) Dec 06, 2007Environmental Tectonics reports that Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group, has successfully completed a space flight training course at the NASTAR Center, which is the National Aerospace Training and Research Center. He undertook this training in preparation for a flight aboard SpaceShipTwo, the suborbital vehicle his company Virgin Galactic is developing along with Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites. |
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