Russia has been flying space tourists to the International Space Station since 2001. It has taken up seven people so far who were willing to go and had the pockets deep enough to pay for the trip. The country is going to add to that number in a couple of years as it’s going to fly two space tourists to the ISS in late 2021.
Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, has inked an agreement with Space Adventures to take two “spaceflight participants” to the International Space Station in late 2021. They will hitch a ride on a Soyuz spacecraft for a trip that has been described to be of a “short duration.”
The identities of these space tourists have not been revealed but it can safely be assumed that they have the resources to pay for a trip of this sort. Such trips help Roscosmos to fund the country’s spaceflight industry, a fact that the agency noted in its press release. This also helps generate publicity for future missions of the sort.
Some private companies have also been working to take up space tourists. They include the likes of Virgin Galactic that’s actually aiming to take non-astronauts into space before the late 2021 Roscosmos launch. It goes to show that money can indeed buy you anything.
Filed in . Read more about Space. Source: en.roscosmos.ru