Space Adventures

Have you ever longed to hop aboard one of the space shuttles bound for outer space? Have you daydreamed of spending a week or two on the International Space Station?

Your wishes might come true now that Space Adventures is looking to send a couple of regular folks into space in 2008 and 2009 aboard a Soyuz craft, and the firm will soon be selling seats for the low, low price of $100 million apiece.

Each experience includes cosmonaut training and over a week in space orbiting the Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"With the successful flights of the first and only five private space explorers, we not only created the space tourism industry, but now, because of the global market demand, we have secured two additional Soyuz seats and have proposed to the Russian space agency the purchase of seats in 2010, and beyond," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "The unique provision to Space Adventures of these commercial Soyuz seats has enabled my team to engage with potential clients from all over the world who have the interest in private spaceflight, the financial capability and the insatiable desire to explore."

Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Vienna, VA. with an office in Moscow. 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, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.