Russia not curtailing space cooperation programs, space tourist Brightman to start training in January - Roscosmos chief
MOSCOW. Oct 4 (Interfax) - Russia is open to international cooperation in space and is not planning to phase out its programs; in particular, British singer Sarah Brightman should start training for traveling to the International Space Station as a space tourist in January 2015, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) chief Oleg Ostapenko told journalists.
"We are open to international cooperation and have not yet phased out any programs and are continuing to work within the framework that was determined earlier. Sarah Brightman's training for flying to the ISS as part of an international crew will begin in January 2015," Ostapenko said.
Russian Cosmonaut Training Center chief Yury Lonchakov had said in early September that a training plan for Brightman had already been compiled. "I believe her training will be successful," he said.
It was reported earlier that Brightman was getting ready for a 10-day tourist stay aboard the ISS, for which she is due to set off on October 4, 2015. Brightman is due to start a course at Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center on January 12, 2015. Her fellow travelers will be Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and European Space Agency Astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
Space Adventures is the marketing agent for the organization of Soyuz tourist flights to the ISS.
American Dennis Tito, who went to the ISS in 2001, became the first space tourist. Mark Shuttleworth, who is a dual South African/British citizen, was the second, going to the station in 2002. In 2005, the station hosted one more tourist, American Gregory Olsen. In 2006, the first woman tourist, Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari, arrived at the ISS. Each of them paid about $20 million for their trip.
The next tourist was Hungarian-American Charles Simonyi, who visited the ISS in 2007.
Richard Garriott, a dual British/American citizen and NASA Astronaut Owen Garriott's son, made a tourist flight to the ISS in 2008. Garriott paid $30 million for his childhood dream to come true, having raised the money via his business of video game development, which he abandoned after returning from space.
Charles Somonyi revisited the station in March 2009, making him the only person to have made two tourist space flights.
Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, co-founder and chief executive of Cirque de Soleil, traveled to the ISS as the next tourist late in 2009, paying more than $50 million for his flight.