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The Russian space agency Roscosmos has signed an agreement with the American Space Adventures space tourism company to transport two passengers to the International Space Station in 2021. And unlike space tourists, these two passengers will fly together.
Roscosmos officials announced on Tuesday (19 February) that their agency had signed a contract with Space Adventures to transport a pair of tourists (called "space flight participants") on a single Soyuz vessel for a short flight. A veteran cosmonaut would probably occupy the third seat of the Soyuz, which has three people, although the officials of Roscosmos did not make it clear.
This mission will be the first tourist flight of the station for 12 years, after the 2009 flight of the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte. The Laliberte flight, which cost $ 35 million, was negotiated by Space Adventures.
Space Adventures has helped a series of extremely wealthy tourists to visit the International Space Station over the past 18 years. All flights have had price tags in the tens of millions of dollars. The company also organizes weightless flights, launch tours and other space experiments.
In photos: The first space tourists in the world
The first tourist flight into space allowed American millionaire Dennis Tito to join the radio station for a week in 2001 for $ 20 million. The next South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth was launched in 2002, spending 8 days in orbit at about the same price.
In 2005, the American entrepreneur Greg Olsen went to the station aboard a nine-day flight with $ 20 million. The entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari became the first space tourist to visit the resort in 2006. She spent 12 days in space for an undisclosed price.
In 2007, Microsoft co-founder Charles Simonyi joined the space tourism club for the first time. He would have paid $ 25 million for a 13-day trip. Simonyi liked flying so much that he did it a second time. Simonyi returned to the International Space Station in 2009, paying $ 35 million for the flight this time. He even bought the Soyuz capsule from this mission and donated it to a museum.
Computer game developer Richard Garriott visited the space station in 2008 between Simonyi flights. Garriott, the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, became the first second generation American astronaut to fly in space. He would have paid $ 30 million for his 12-day flight.
That brings us to Laliberte, who spent 11 days in space during his flight.
Roscosmos did not specify the identity of the people who could fly on the Soyuz flight 2021, nor the cost per seat. Space Adventures also did not share details on the flight.
"Over the past 18 years, our partnership has allowed non-professionals to experience life in the space.Our clients have spent nearly three months in total and have traveled more than 36 million kilometers, "said Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to work with Roscosmos in order to open the space frontier to all."
Editor's note: This story was last updated at 19:28. IS to include Space Adventures comments.
Send an email to Tariq Malik at [email protected] or follow him @tariqjmalik. follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.
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