Russia says ready to send tourists into space

MOSCOW - 21 June 2017: Director General of the Russian company Glavkosmos said Tuesday that the company, under the support of the Roscosmos state corporation, is ready to provide orbital flights on board the Soyuz spacecraft, with docking at the International Space Station (ISS), for space tourists, Tass news agency reported.

"Tourism is potentially possible, but at this stage we do not link it to the ISS program. In other words, we can prepare only a separate mission for space tourists, in which one our professional cosmonaut and two tourists will fly. This is a separate mission, but docking at the ISS is possible," he said.

"Anyone interested may address Glavkosmos, and we will study this proposal," Lyskov added.

As he put it, the cost of a space ticket will depend on the duration and complexity of the flight program.

Before that, only Space Adventures, based in the US, provided private space flight programs on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The first commercial launch of a Soyuz carrier rocket will be carried out by Glavkosmos Launch Services, a new space launch operator, in 2019, Company CEO Alexander Serkin said at the Le Bourget international aerospace show on Tuesday.

"The first launch, the first mission, on which we are now beginning work, is planned for 2019," the chief executive said.

Glavkosmos CEO Denis Lyskov said that an agreement on the space launch had been prepared and would be announced shortly.

"Preparatory work is underway but we expect to announce the signing of the contract before the MAKS airshow," he said.

The contract may be signed at the Russian airshow "but this will depend on the customer," Lyskov said.