The Russian company and agency have already taken 8 tourists to the ISS between 2001 and 2009.
Moscow, Russia:
Russian space company Energia said Thursday it will take the first tourist to space in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with an American partner.
Energia signed a contract with Space Adventures, which promises to bring two space tourists to the International Space Station that year.
“We anticipate that one of the expedition participants will take a space walk from the Russian segment with a professional Russian cosmonaut,” said Energia, part of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
The announcement comes days after NASA signed an agreement with Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic to promote private missions to the station after a special training program in the United States.
It also follows Elon Musk’s first successful mission by SpaceX last month to bring astronauts to the station on a reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft, ending nearly a decade of Russia’s shuttle monopoly human in orbit.
SpaceX announced in March its own three-person space tourism trip next year on the Crew Dragon.
Space Adventures already advertises the space walk on its website as a “rare and exhilarating experience”, available only through the Russian program.
“If you choose to fly into space aboard the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, you have the option of … going out into space with a professional cosmonaut,” he said.
The company, in collaboration with the Russian agency, has already led eight tourists to the ISS between 2001 and 2009.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
