NPO Aviation and Space Technologies chief designer Aleksandr Begak just revealed that Russia is currently working on its very own space tourism projects.
According to Begak, some private space companies are already developing an uncrewed spacecraft that will take tourists into near-Earth orbit.
The first flight will reportedly cost approximately $200,000 to $300,000 per person. The project is also supported by the Russian National Technology Initiative‘s AeroNet and SpaceNet groups.
The space probe, called the Selena Space Yacht, is already under development. Bagak confirmed that only three would be produced and each spacecraft can carry six passengers and a pilot.
It is designed to operate autonomously, but a pilot will always be present during each tour.
“We have an opportunity to land on any airfield, the device lands like an airplane,” Begak said in his interview with the Sputnik news agency.
“We now calculate the optimal time for space travel, a comfortable flight path, because experience shows that people do not need to be in zero-gravity condition for as long as 10 minutes.”
Russia’s Space Tourism
Aside from the development of space yachts, the Russian space agency Roscosmos also announced its partnership with American company Space Adventures to send tourists on vacation to the International Space Station by 2021.
“This is the first contract for the flight of amateur cosmonauts following a decade’s absence of tourists aboard the ISS,” Dmitry Rogozin, Roscosmos chief, said in a tweet.
Space Adventures is widely known for already organizing eight paid space flights to the ISS. Each trip reportedly cost tens of millions of dollars, especially for wealthy clients like Microsoft tycoon Charles Simonyi who already went twice.
Also, Roscosmos plans to launch orbital flights that will replicate the route taken by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft back in 1961.
I don’t want to have a yatch mishap in space😀
Hiu