$51m per flight to space station
2009-05-14 10:11
Moscow - Russia will charge US
astronauts $51m per return trip to the International
Space Station (ISS) from 2012 and will resume selling seats to
space tourists, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.
Nasa needs to use the Russian Soyuz capsule because its own
Space Shuttle will be retired next year after nearly 3 decades
in service and a replacement is not due until 2014 at the
earliest.
Russia's own plans for a new spacecraft are running behind
schedule, with the planned unveiling of a mock-up now delayed by
a year to 2010, Interfax quoted Anatoly Perminov head of Russian
space agency Roskosmos as saying.
"We've agreed with our American partners the sum of $51m,
starting in 2012," Perminov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass
news agency.
He did not specify how much astronauts will be charged
between 2010 and 2012, but in 2006 Russia charged the United
States $21.8m per return flight to the ISS.
One free seat
Since then
the price for of a space tourist ticket to the ISS has climbed
to $35m from $20m.
Roskosmos earlier said that US billionaire Charles
Simonyi's March flight to the ISS would be the last by a space
tourist as a doubling of the space station crew to six would
leave no room for amateurs.
But as Kazakhstan has cancelled its plans to send a trained
cosmonaut into space this September, the Soyuz now has one free
seat, Perminov was quoted as saying. He said the tourist would
not be the last.
"This form of tourism will continue," Perminov was quoted by
Itar-Tass as saying.
Nasa and all other partners will be solely dependent on
Russia for crew transport after the shuttle ceases operations.
Nasa plans to replace the shuttles with Apollo-style
capsules that in addition to travelling to the space station
will be able to fly astronauts to the moon's surface.