Eric Anderson, the chairman of Space Adventures, offered a YouTube video update on his company's plan to send two paying customers on a Russian Soyuz on a flight around the moon. Anderson said that he hopes the flight to depart by February 2017.
What is the private lunar mission?
According to the lunar mission page on the Space Adventures website, two customers were pay $150 million each will be launched on board a Russian Soyuz rocket along with a hired Russian cosmonaut pilot. An unmanned rocket would launch soon after with a booster rocket which would then dock with the Soyuz. The booster rocket would blast the Soyuz out of low Earth orbit for a loop around the moon, then a return to Earth. Space Adventures has announced that one person has already paid to be on the voyage and an agreement is pending for one more passenger.
Why February 2017?
Anderson is keen to conduct his private lunar voyage by the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Apollo program, which landed a man on the moon on July 20, 1969. Apollo 1, which would have had Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Ed Chafee was scheduled to launch on an Earth orbit mission sometime in February 1967. However the Apollo fire occurred the month before, causing a long delay while NASA examined the cause and instituted a number of design changes to make the Apollo spacecraft safer and more reliable. Space Adventures' cis-lunar flight will honor the Apollo 1 astronauts, says Anderson, and perhaps provide a spur for government efforts toward the moon.
What is Space Adventures?
Space Adventures is best described as a travel agency for private space travelers. It was founded in 1998 and has since arranged with the Russian Space Agency a number of private trips to the International Space Station for a number of people willing to pay $20-30 million for the privilege. Private space travelers who have been to the ISS include Denis Tito, a former NASA employee turn financier, Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian American entrepreneur, and Richard Garriott, a computer game millionaire.
Space Adventures is also working with Armadillo Aerospace to arrange for private suborbital flights on a spacecraft being developed by that company. The company also sells rides on a microgravity air flight that simulates the weightless conditions of space.
Who is Eric Anderson?
Eric Anderson serves as the chairman of Space Adventures. He is one of a number of aerospace notables who endorsed Mitt Romney for president and is advising the candidate on commercial space policy issues.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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