spacetoday.net: Space Adventures confirms circumlunar mission plans

Posted: Fri, May 6, 2011, 7:30 AM ET (1130 GMT)
Space Adventures lunar mission image concept

Space tourism company Space Adventures confirmed Thursday that they plan to carry out a commercial mission around the Moon as early as the end of 2015, and have signed up one of the two customers for the trip. The circumlunar mission proposed by Space Adventures would feature two paying customers and one professional cosmonaut flying a Soyuz spacecraft, attached to a habitat module, around the Moon. The company confirmed in a telecon Thursday that they have signed one customer at a ticket price as high as $150 million, and are in negotiations with a second customer. If the deal for the second customer closes by the end of the year, as the company anticipates, the company says they could carry out the mission as soon as the end of 2015. Space Adventures also announced that they project 140 commercial customers, including tourists and commercial researchers, flying into orbit over the next decade, both to the ISS and proposed commercial facilities.