Two Tourist Seats for Space Station Jaunt Sold; Two More for Sale

space.com ^ | 12/17/03 | David Leonard

[KevinDavis]

Two American space tourists are being trained in Russia for express lane rides up to the International Space Station. A space tourism company has sold seats in Soyuz spacecraft slated to fly in 2004 and 2005, and has also acquired from Russian space officials two more slots for future paying passengers.

"We have contracted for two more seats with the Russian Space Agency, beyond the two that we have been selling," Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures told SPACE.com

[KevinDavis]

Those lucky SOB......

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[diamondjoe]

This is all fine and dandy, and I envy the guys who go up, but I wonder about the financial part of this. US taxpayers are the ones footing the lion's share of the bill, so it doesn't seem right that the Russians are able to just go ahead and sell access passes to the space station and pocket all the money. $40 million is a drop in the bucket when you consider the cost, but it seems that revenue ought to be shared based on which companies paid the costs.

[Aeronaut]

Those lucky SOB......

The going rate for the high-flying experience is $20 million per seat... Not so much lucky as extremely wealthy.

[bonesmccoy]

why not?

Doesn't Amtrak sell seats between train stations?

Metro sells seats between mass transit stations.

Who builds airports?

Commercial airlines sell seats to fly and the terminal is paid for by tax payers.

Tax payers pay for stadiums where privately owned teams play and charge fans $3.00 for a hot dog and $4.00 for a Pepsi.

If the Russians can fly a mission for $120 million dollars a flight and $40 million per seat, god bless them!

Wish we would do the same.

[Jotmo]

Good answer!

[RightWhale]

That was the viewpoint of NASA. NASA wouldn't allow civilians to the ISS. One benefit of the controversy--NASA's anti-private-enterprise sentiment was forced out into the open.

[irv]

Two Tourist Seats for Space Station Jaunt Sold; Two More for Sale

In a surprise move, the Russian Space Agency announced that the tourists being sent are Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Due to extremely high demand, their trip will be one-way.