Consortium to make tour vehicles for space

Cnet News ^ | 02/16/06 | Michael Kanellos

[KevinDavis]

Space Adventures, the company that has sent tourists into space on Russian rockets, is teaming up with Prodea, an investment firm founded by the Ansari family, to develop a fleet of suborbital, reusable spacecraft for space tourism. The Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation will also participate, by supervising the development of the vehicles.

"Our goal in supporting the X Prize was to launch a new space industry through the introduction of commercial suborbital spaceflights," Anousheh Ansari, co-founder of Prodea, said in a statement. "We partnered with Space Adventures because they have proved that there is a market for space tourism by having been the first company to fly a private citizen to space, and remain today the only company to have actually taken tourists to space," she said. The Ansari family created the X Prize, which awarded $10 million to the SpaceShipOne team for successfully creating a private spacecraft.

A design for the suborbital space transportation system has already been put together by the Myasishchev Design Bureau, according to Space Adventures. The vehicle, called Explorer, will have the capacity to transport up to five people. While providing a safe flight, Explorer is also designed to optimize the experience of space travel, Space Adventures said.

[KevinDavis]

[Brett66]

Very interesting, the Ansari's teaming with the Russians for a sub-orbital spacecraft. It also could be worrisome because of the Russian tendency to sell all of this technology to hostile Muslim countries.

[meanie monster]

Thanks For the Ping a ling!!!!!