spacetoday.net: Google co-founder makes deposit for ISS flight

Posted: Thu, Jun 12, 2008, 7:29 AM ET (1129 GMT)
Sergey Brin on Zero G flight (Space Adv.)

A co-founder of Internet search giant Google has put down a deposit on a future flight to the International Space Station through Space Adventures, the company announced Wednesday. Sergey Brin paid a $5-million deposit to be the first member of the company's new Orbital Mission Explorers Circie, a group that will have preferential access to future commercial flights to the ISS. Brin has not committed to a specific date for his flight. Space Adventures also announced that is reached an agreement with the Russian space agency Roskosmos for the first dedicated commercial Soyuz flight to the station, planned for the second half of 2011; the flight will have two seats available for commercial passengers. Space Adventures has flown five people on regular Soyuz taxi flights to the station, with a sixth, Richard Garriott, scheduled to fly in October.