spacetoday.net: Boeing and Space Adventures to sell commercial orbital flights

Posted: Thu, Sep 16, 2010, 7:47 AM ET (1147 GMT)
Boeing CST-100 illustration

Space tourism company Space Adventures and aerospace company Boeing announced plans Wednesday to sell seats on Boeing's planned commercial crew vehicle to private customers. Boeing is planning development of the CST-100, a capsule capable of carrying up to seven people to the International Space Station and other orbital destinations. While Boeing sees NASA as an anchor customer for the spacecraft for transporting crews to and from the ISS, the agreement would allow Space Adventures to sell extra seats on those missions, and perhaps dedicated flights, to tourists and other commercial customers. Development of the CST-100 is pending support from NASA as part of the commercial crew initiative in the agency's budget proposal; if the funding comes through on schedule and Boeing is awarded a contract, the CST-100 could enter service by 2015. Space Adventures has sold eight seats on Soyuz flights to the ISS since 2001 and said that the Boeing opportunity would be competitive in price to the Soyuz seats, the most recent of which, last year, sold for around $40 million.