Russia to Send Tourists Around the Moon

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Russia eyes Soyuz upgrades for mission around the moon

Space tourism firm Space Adventures says two customers have paid deposits for a flight around the moon on a Soyuz spacecraft, but the trip requires major changes to the Russian crew capsule, a vehicle that has seen only incremental upgrades in recent decades.

While the Virginia-based company works with Russian engineers to make the venerable Soyuz ferry craft ready for a lunar voyage, Space Adventures president Tom Shelley said last week he expects prices for tourist trips to the International Space Station to fall once U.S.-built capsules begin flying astronauts into low Earth orbit.

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[Four Winds]

"The flight around the moon goes for $150 million per person."

For $150 million, I would at least expect to walk on the moon, get a free mojito and a souvenir glass.

Edited June 17, 2014 by Razer

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Roscosmos Disavows Plan to Send Space Tourists to Moon

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, will not be involved in a plan to send two space tourists on a flight around the Moon and was not consulted about the project, the federal space agency said.

The mission, hatched by U.S.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures and a major Russian spacecraft manufacturer, Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, would see two space tourists travel to the Moon aboard a modified Russian Soyuz spacecraft by 2017. However, Roscosmos was kept out of the loop on the plan.

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