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Under the agreement, Space Adventures will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon vehicle to fly up to four passengers to Earth orbit. The trip will not visit the International Space Station. Instead, it will remain in orbit as a free-flying spacecraft. To date, Space Adventures has arranged eight orbital trips to the International Space Station for seven wealthy customers: Dennis Tito in 2001; South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth in 2002; American entrepreneurs Greg Olsen in 2005 and Anousheh Ansari in 2006; Microsoft co-founder Charles Simonyi (twice) in 2007 and 2009; computer game developer Richard Garriott in 2008;...

One may need extraordinary luck, strength, brains and good looks to get on a government-financed space ride like the one awarded to Ko San on Wednesday. For billionaires like Kim Taek-jin, however, there is a faster and less bothersome way: Buying his way into the mock flight experience. Kim, the founder and CEO of NCsoft, will take a zero-gravity flight out of an airport in Texas this Friday, local time, the company said. He will be accompanied by 30 Koreans and some of the company's employees, who were lucky enough to be picked into the program. The zero-gravity flight provides...

ASPEN, Colo. — You don't have to pack your bags quite yet, but passenger travel to the Moon is on the flight manifest of a space tourism company. The price per seat will slap your wallet or purse for a swift $100 million — but you'll have to get in line as the first voyage is already booked. Space Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Va., is in negotiations with the customers who will fly the first private expedition to fly around the Moon. "I hope to have those contracts signed by the end of the year," said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures'...

Space Adventures, Venture capitalist firm Prodea, and Russian aerospace firm Myasishchev Design Bureau are planning to share their science notes to build suborbital flight vehicles that can take you and me into space. Myasishchev will design and build the ships. Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures -- which has already sent three tourists to the international space center since 2001 -- will do the selling. Prodea will beam up the necessary funds when required. The spaceship is expected to hold 5 very very wealthy travelers who have lots and lots of time on their hands to prepare for the trip. If I...

Eric Anderson's company has taken two wealthy tourists on $20-million trips to the International Space Station using Russian equipment and launch pad. Now he's preparing to offer hour-long, suborbital flights to the public for a mere $100,000. And he'd like to base the operations in Florida. Anderson is president and chief executive of Space Adventures, which has offices in Arlington, Va., Moscow and now near the Kennedy Space Center. He pitched his business -- and bold request for incentives -- to members of the state Commission on the Future of Space and Aeronautics at their meeting in Tampa last week.

Space Adventures of Arlington, Virginia has sealed the deal on an exclusive marketing partnership with the Tokyo-based travel agency, JTB Corporation. The agreement announced today opens wide the door for the Japanese to buy commercial treks into space and related experiences from Space Adventures. JTB will market a wide array of programs available from Space Adventures, including the recently announced Deep Space Expeditions (DSE-Alpha) mission to the Moon -- the first in a series of lunar missions being offered. That mission could liftoff as early as 2008, according to a Space Adventures press statement. The cost of trekking to the...

Got a spare $100 million? And a hankering to witness an Earthrise? Space Adventures Ltd. is offering to help. The Alexandria, Va.-based space tourism company recently announced plans to provide scenic trips around the moon and back, using modified Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In a wrinkle on the old Cold War rivalry, a private sector space race could crop up pitting Russian entrepreneurs against people such as Mojave's Burt Rutan, who has contracted to build a fleet of private industry rocket ships to carry tourists into space. The first moon tourist trek, dubbed DSE-Alpha, could take place as soon as 2008,...

Waiting in the Wings: Expedition 12, Space Tourist Olsen Prepare By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 11 August 2005 06:44 am ET HOUSTON—As the crew of NASA’s space shuttle Discovery celebrates their safe return to Earth, two astronauts are gearing up for their own launch toward the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev are set to ride a Soyuz spacecraft to the station in October on the twelfth expedition to the ISS. McArthur will command ISS Expedition 12, with Tokarev serving as flight engineer. Physicist Gregory Olsen, a paying spaceflight participant whose trip...

Space Adventures announced Wednesday the availability of a commercial spaceflight to the far side of the moon. The company, which organized spaceflights for the world's first private space explorers, American businessman Dennis Tito and the 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth, disclosed the details of the mission, called DSE-Alpha, during a press conference. DSE-Alpha, the first in a series of lunar missions to be featured in Space Adventures' Deep Space Expeditions (DSE) program, is made possible through the company's long-standing partnership with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) and the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (RSC Energia).

NEW YORK (AP) -- The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending "tourists" up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: rocketing people around the far side of the moon. The price of a round-trip ticket: $100 million. The first mission by Space Adventures could happen in 2008 or 2009 and is planned as a stepping stone to an eventual lunar landing by private citizens. "For the first time in history, a private company is organizing a mission to the moon," Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said at a Manhattan news conference Wednesday, a day after...

One day after NASA brought the shuttle Discovery back from low Earth orbit, a private company plans to announce a more audacious venture, a tourist trip around the Moon. Space Adventures, a company based in Arlington, Va., has already sent two tourists into orbit. Today, it is to unveil an agreement with Russian space officials to send two passengers on a voyage lasting 10 to 21 days, depending partly on its itinerary and whether it includes the International Space Station. A roundtrip ticket will cost $100 million. The space-faring tourists will travel with a Russian pilot. They will steer clear...

US firm Space Adventures is potentially interested in buying a Russian Soyuz space craft to make tourist flights to the International Space Station (ISS), ITAR-TASS quoted the company's chief as saying. The Arlington, Virgina-based firm, which brokered the first two tourist space flights in 2001 and 2002, has signed a contract with the Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos to fly two more tourists to the ISS in 2004-2005. Eric Anderson, chief executive officer, told the news agency in Los Angeles that Space Adventures was keen to send the two space tourists on board one spaceship accompanied by a professional astronaut. They...