Space Adventures
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Space Adventures Ltd. is an Arlington, Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998, best known for sending paying tourists to the International Space Station (ISS). Space Adventures is currently the only operating spaceline in the world.
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Background
The company provides a number of space-related programs, including "zero-gravity" rides on a Russian IL-76 airplane. In May 2001, it sent American businessman Dennis Tito to the ISS aboard a Russian Aviation and Space Agency Soyuz spacecraft for a reported $20 million payment, making him the first space tourist in history. South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth did the same in April 2002.
On December 16, 2003, the company announced a contract with two unnamed American individuals, who agreed to pay $20 million each to make similar trips in 2004 and 2005. In fact, the third flight only took place on October 1, 2005, with the launch of Gregory Olsen, and it is assumed that Olsen was one of these two individuals.
A flight is on offer with two tourists and one pilot, the SA-1, also to the ISS.
On November 3, 2005, Space Adventures announced that their next client would be Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto. Enomoto is expected to fly to the ISS in October 2006.
Circumlunar flights
On August 10, 2005, the company announced a project named Deep Space Expeditions Alpha to send people around the Moon. A 5 1/2 day lunar flight could happen in 2008 or 2009, and cost about $100 million. [1]
Explorer suborbital spaceplane
The company has a concept suborbital tourist rocketplane, the C-21. It is combined with the launchplane M-55X mothership to form the Cosmopolis XXI launch system.
Space Adventures has entered into an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency to further develop the C-21 design into the Explorer. It has also entered into an agreement with Prodea, backers of the Ansari X-Prize to develop spaceports in the United Arab Emirates ( Ras Al Khaimah spaceport ) and Singapore (Singapore spaceport).
On April 3, 2006, it was reported that a UAE entrepreneur is paying more than $100,000 to go on the first suborbital flight [2].