Tourist-Class Soyuz Spacecraft Seats Open 191
brandido writes "Put another notch in the belt for space tourism - Space.com is reporting that: "If you're looking for the ultimate in get-up-and go, take note: Tourist-class seats will be available on a Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station in 2004-2005. This off-planet trek comes courtesy of a deal struck between Space Adventures, a U.S. adventure travel firm, Russia's RSC Energia and the Russian Space Agency (Rosoviakosmos)." However, NASA has yet to be officially notified or to give formal approval, so there are still some speed bumps in the road map."
typical (Score:4, Insightful)
Space travel is dangerous. Explosions WILL happen. Review of procedures should be constant and thorough (that's a no-brainer). After any disaster, downtime should be minimal, not excessive due to overreaction and political correctness.
With that said, I'm accepting VISA/MC (sorry, no Discover cards) for donations to my fund for a seat on the shuttle.
Re:typical (Score:5, Funny)
I hope so, otjerwise the ship will just sit on the launch pad...
Re:typical (Score:3, Interesting)
Or maybe I didnt understand your joke.
shoot... (Score:4, Funny)
NASA's approval? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:5, Informative)
Because the International Space Station is just that - an international space station. NASA is one of the lead partners in the project and, as such, any missions/visits/whatever to the ISS must first be green stamped by NASA.
It's a bit like a shared cabin in the country - you ask the permission of the other owners, as much out of courtesy as anything else, before you head down there for the weekend.
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:3, Informative)
NASA hasn't tried to put someone up that Russia has had problems with yet...
I'm sure that if NASA found a way to charge people for rides, Russia would throw a fit until they got a cut of the money.
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2)
NASA: 'No, sorry, we can't let you take paying passengers to the ISS.'
Russians: 'You mean like your astronauts?'
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:3, Informative)
They're selling seats to go to the International Space Station. NASA owns much of it. It's an enclosed space, so the tourist would be using resources provided partially by NASA...
The tourist could also do quite a bit of damage very easily... Without proper training by NASA, lots of bad stuff could easily happen...
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:5, Informative)
Learn about what you're talking about before you speak.
Congress determines what NASA will do. NASA has a charter created by the government that dictates what NASA can and can't do.
Profiting falls neatly into the can't column.
In fact, NASA is obligated by its charter to give away all the technology it develops. UV sunglasses, pacemakers, velcro, and hundreds of other major scientific breaktrhoughs are a result of NASA research. But NASA is prohibited from making money off of them. If Congress would let them, NASA would take over the world.
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:3, Funny)
Dammit, we all know that the Vulcans introduced velcro to earth. Enterprise taught me that. Anything else is revisionist propaganda.
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:2)
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, that's beside the point here; it's a fact that NASA is top-heavy, inefficient and basically just a money sink which doesn't do what it's supposed to do: open up space for the masses.
Personally I think it's a big shame on them that a private individual like Burt Rutan will (very likely) have a (commercial) re-usable shuttle service up in the air, sooner and for less cost than anything NASA has ever dreamed up. The NASA bigwigs should be begging to be bitchslapped for failure to do something similar.
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not NASA's mission. They are a research organization.
Anyone who thinks they are a just a money sink is either uninformed or blind. The number of world-changing technologies developed by NASA is staggering. Do a search sometime on 'NASA Spinoff' technologies. You'll be amazed at how many common everyday technologies were developed by NASA.
Personally I think it's a big shame on them that a private individual like Burt Rutan will (very likely) have a (commercial) re-usable shuttle service up in the air, sooner and for less cost than anything NASA has ever dreamed up. The NASA bigwigs should be begging to be bitchslapped for failure to do something similar.
Do you know anything of the multiple prototypes developed as a replacement for the Shuttle? Do you know anything of their history, or the fact that Congress terminated their funding?
Mr. Rutan will very likely be using a number of technologies developed by NASA to build his system, and put it towards a use that NASA is not allowed to do. The NASA bigwigs should be commended for doing as well as they are with the limited resources Congress gives them.
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:5, Insightful)
Thing is, NASA is a space agency, not a pure research agency. They do the research because they have (had) to, to get satelites into space. I think you mistake 'non-profit' for 'pure research organisation'.
Anyway, I know quite a bit about NASA's multiple idea's for shuttle folow ups. The fact that they have multiple should tell you something about the lack of efficiency there. The fact that they spent millions without actual prototypess should say more. The fact that an aussie built a scramjet for 10.000 dollars and actually flew it, whereas NASA, which had many more people and much more money on their scramjet, couldn't get theirs to fly is an even greater indication.
Face it; congress was absolutely right to cut funding for an effort which ran hugely over budget and didn't produce tangible goods, or even cost-savings.
But most telling of all is that many NASA people say the same thing; NASA is a beurocracy which is in the business of perpetuating itself more than doing actual science or innovating in their field. You should go read some scientific journals, and you'd know that.
Sure, they have done and still do amazing things...but how could you not with some amazing people and an amazing budget. But look at China, look at Japan, look at Russia even; all are doing much more to push the boundaries of human experience than NASA is now.
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Fsck NASA's approval (Score:2)
The sublet analogy is bad. If you didn't live in your mom's basement, you'd know my analogy was right the first time.
This is everybody paying rent and everyone having an equal right to invite people over. Of course, they can't eat your food or go into parts of the apartment that you don't specifically allow but they are certainly allowed to exist as guests.
Re:NASA's approval? (Score:2, Informative)
No reason to start an anti-American thread for this.
Tito got a grudging approval... (Score:2, Insightful)
NASA knows that the Russians need money for their space program and will probably tolerate this guy as well.
Re:Tito got a grudging approval... (Score:5, Insightful)
NASA also knows they need the Russian launch vehicles to take up the slack of the grounded Shuttles...
And Russia is milking that for all it's worth...
Are you sure? (Score:5, Funny)
hotels.com (Score:2, Funny)
Re:hotels.com (Score:3, Funny)
You want hotels.ru
Sheesh, amateurs....
Re:hotels.com (Score:3, Funny)
now all i have to do is book the flight, explain to my boss why this trip is business related...and expense it.
cya on the ISS,
In relation to an earlier story (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically, in the novel, the Earth is nearing ecological meltdown and the food chain has become compromised. To escape from hell on Earth and certain death on a dying planet, the filthy rich implement a plan to launch themselves into space and self-sustainability in space.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, they find that although they can escape the pollution on Earth, they can't escape the pollution in their souls.
Senator Hatch, Hilary Rosen and the SCO board spring immediately to mind (as well as a raft of other political figures, from the US and around the world), when I think of people I'd launch into orbit now so that the rest of us can live more freely and cleanly today.
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:2)
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:2)
Wow...
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:2)
Ben Elton - Unfunny arsehole.
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:2)
Is it me or does it seem that the ending to each of his books seems...eh...rushed? Or is he trying to give his books these meaningful endings that I just don't get? I think he's a good writer...but I've yet to find a book if his where the ending does not suck.
(The TV adaptation was a bit so so btw
Re:In relation to an earlier story (Score:3, Funny)
You know, until just now, none of my fantasies have ever involved an airlock.
Does anyone else (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does anyone else (Score:5, Insightful)
And if you are that concerned, consider that the other option is more of your tax dollars going up in space.
And it probably isn't any more dangerous than having a small child strapped into the back seat of a car.
Re:Does anyone else (Score:3, Insightful)
Space tourist tickets have recently been selling for $2e+7. ISS cost ~= $1e+11. At those prices, you'd have to send up 50,000 tourists just to pay for the amusement park, ignoring the cost of gas and a ride.
With the bloated costs of running the ISS, there is no way that the presence of an extra tourist on the ISS is not somehow costing the U.S. taxpayers more than what he paid
Picking nits (Score:2)
Space tourist tickets have recently been selling for $2e+7. ISS cost ~= $1e+11. At those prices, you'd have to send up 50,000 tourists just to pay for the amusement park, ignoring the cost of gas and a ride.
Putting aside that the ISS isn't just an amusement park, you're off by an order of magnitude:
1e+11 / 2e+7 = 10000e+7/2e+7 = 10000/2 = 5000
What's the point of sending probes? (Score:3, Insightful)
What was the effect of all those accounts sent back by Lewis and Clark and other early European-decent explorers in North America? The more people found out, the more they wanted to go there. Lots of people
Re:What's the point of sending probes? (Score:3, Insightful)
The current situation is as if Lewis and Clark set out from Philadelphia to explore the West, but then stopped on the Ohio border and sat on their butts doing nothing but spending government money for 10 years.
Re:What's the point of sending probes? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I've given up hope that NASA will do anything big or dramatic again,
Space travel needs this (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything that drums up public support for space exploration gets a thumbs up from me. Honestly, I don't see how much this can jepordize anyone's life. Many/most of the systems onboard these craft are fully automated, and if shit hits the fan, there's pretty much zilcho anyone can do.
So no, I don't find this disgusting at all.
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:2, Insightful)
That's not true at all. A very large percentage of the crew's time is spent on IFM tasks. (In Flight Maint.)
Getting any other types of tasks on the timeline is very difficult, especially now that there's only two crewmembers up there.
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:2)
Really, the space shuttle isn't much more advanced than the Apollo capsule. Surely you don't think that the men on A
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:2)
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:3, Insightful)
You are exactly right. Imagine if a government banned private citizens from owning or operating cars, yet used their taxes to build roads and buy cars for the exclusive use of unelected government officials. That is exactly what NASA are their supporter
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:5, Insightful)
I am the world's biggest proponent of space exploration. I wish NASA would actually start to do it again.
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:2)
Where would you suggest we explore? Other planets? Like Mars? I think we should. We should be on the Moon, we should be on Mars, and beyond... (And before we do that, we have to know how to combat the effects of the trip... Thus the station...)
Already been done. Astronauts have already spent periods greater than a year in space aboard the Mir. We know how space effects the human body. Already been studied. For the amount
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone should tell them that, then. They're still learning more about these effects right now with the crews on the ISS.
Did you know that kidney stones form faster up there than on the ground? Know why? Neither do the people currently running the Renal Stone experiments up there right now. I'll have to tell them that you already know all the answers, and they're wasting their time.
I want to support space exploration, and right now NASA's only objecti
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:4, Interesting)
Do we know everything? Of course not. Columbus didn't know about Cuba either. Let's quit putzing around in low earth orbit and GO SOMEWHERE.
You might need to get FAA's permission, but just try to launch a spacecraft without jumping through NASA's hoops too. You won't be allowed to.
As far as destruction of competitors, look no further than Beale Aerospace. They had a superb rocket engine design with a lot of successful development behind it. NASA wrote a couple briefs alleging that the motor wouldn't work (although it did), and eventually the company went bankrupt.
Same thing has happened with several other non-establishment space businesses.
Look, this is my
They've lost focus, they've lost drive, they've lost direction. Now they're just a misguided bureaucracy, which exists only to propagate itself.
It needs to either be reformed, or destroyed. Don't much care which.
Re:Space travel needs this (Score:2, Interesting)
A space exploration program absolutely does require the public's support. However, that public support comes from a plan with vision, not fr
Not at all (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not as though the tourists would have anywhere else to go--where are you going to send them, the moon? And as others have pointed out, the more money rich folks pour into space programs, the less of your tax dollars are taken out for them.
As far as "possibly jeopardizing the lives of astronauts", RTFA: This "extra mission" would fly two paying passengers that will have undergone months of training for the trip to the orbiting outpost. (emphasis added) Even Russia isn't stupid enough to send people
Does anyone else (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Does anyone else (Score:2)
Re:Does anyone else (Score:3, Informative)
I find it more disturbing that NASA has crippled the station. A three person crew who does nothing but maintenance. Little to no research. With my tax payer money. Yippe
Re:Does anyone else (Score:3, Informative)
Upon completion, the station was to support a 7 man crew. However, Bush decided that the station didn't really need the escape vehicle and sleeping quarters required to support 7 people, so he cut the funding for those two modules.
The station's new 'complete' status will only support 3 people... about the number required for absolute m
Re:Does anyone else (Score:3, Insightful)
No, blame NASA for overspending earlier in the project. NASA wanted a blank cheque from the taxpayer. If NASA demonstrated the ability to bring large projects in on time and within budget, they'd find it a lot easier to get money from the appropriations committee. All Bush said was look, we can't keep giving you more and more money if you can't show us anything for it.
Re:Does anyone else (Score:5, Insightful)
NASA has for many years made space travel the purview of the technological elite. Now it's within the realm of the financial elite, which is a step in the right direction. (Specifically, the directon of allowing more people to experience space travel)
Re:Does anyone else (Score:4, Insightful)
If you still don't like it, just think of it as "foreign aid". We are quite stingy anyway when it comes to foreign aid, so a little more money going to the Russian space program through this indirect route seems pretty defensible to me.
Re:Does anyone else (Score:2)
The US is many things, but stingy with foreign aid it is not.
Re:Does anyone else (Score:2)
Re:Does anyone else (Score:2, Insightful)
The Teacher in Space program was an educational program. She didn't buy a ticket to go on a ride in a rocket...
The Russians are only trying to make money.
Re:Does anyone else (Score:2)
What it comes down to... (Score:3, Insightful)
2) ???
3) Profit!
Ultimately, if it puts cash into the space program, im all for some rich idiots paying stupid ammounts of cash for it.
In other news.. (Score:2)
Las Vegas odds makers are giving 2-to-1 that NASA will find a way to much it up...
Re:In other news.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm, the shuttle aint launching for another 6 months, at best. I'm guessing they'll be a crew changeover before then - and Nasa needs to stay in Russia's good books.
Of course, for $20 million a person, you could launch 7 people - the compliment of a shuttle - for $140m. The average shuttle flight costs $500m.
Disclaimer (Score:5, Funny)
pretty simple actually: (Score:5, Funny)
You may die. poihnt in fact if anything goes wrong, you will die. If you cause something to go wrong, and though some miracle people don't die, you will be ejected nto space, and you will die.
If you do not want to die, put the pen down and leave.
Do you accept that you will probably die and agree you or you estate will not hold anybody who own or come in contact with anything that is in anyway connected to space travel?
If you do die(and probably will) taco bell promises to name a taco after you, if your body hits a target they specify.
Good luck, spave traveller.
Please kiss you loved good by.... forever.
Life insurance? (Score:2, Interesting)
-N
I want a window seat! (Score:2)
It would be a great trip.
In flight entertainment. (Score:5, Funny)
Stewardess: Apollo 13, sir.
Re:In flight entertainment. (Score:3, Funny)
Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
Holy shit.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
What I'm just as amazed at is how little we've come in the last 40 years.
Early 1800's - Widspread use of steam powered locomotives.
Early 1900's - First airplanes and widespread use of the automobile.
1930's - Widespread air travel. Extremely advanced, maneuverable propellor driven fighters and bombers.
1940's - Jet aircraft introduced. The V2, first ballistic missile, is created.
1950's - Commercial jet travel introduced. Supersonic fighters introduced. ICBMs are introduced and the Sputnik is launched. The X-15 is first used.
1960's - First manned spaceflight. Manned flight to the moon. Interplanetary probes are first launched. The SR-71, which still holds the speed record for an airbreathing craft, is developed.
1970's-1990's - Here is where transportation advancement largely drops off. We've gotten more efficient jets. Rocket technology hasn't gotten any better. Cars have gotten more efficient. Other than some efficiency tweaks, we haven't advanced much at all in transportation since the exceedingly rapid advancements of the mid 20th century.
FYI (Score:5, Informative)
I have some shiny tinfoil I will trade for... (Score:2)
First it was a billionaire, then it was a pop star, now it's any tourist with money. Well hell I've got some shiny tin foil I will trade for a ride on the Soyuz.
You want that boy? Sure ya do! Good boy! You want the shiny tin foil? It's worth more than your GDP! Good boy, fetch!
Re:I have some shiny tinfoil I will trade for... (Score:2)
"He that would trade Government mind ray protection for a temporary space ride deserves neither"
- Benjamin Franklin
Oh boy ... (Score:2, Funny)
-Dae
Okay, so... (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Sell product
3. Repeat (2)
4. Profit
5. Hitch a ride on Soyuz?
If I had that sort of money, I'd be there in a heartbeat. I'm one of those people who doesn't believe it unless he's seen it, so to speak.
As for NASA...meeehhhhhh! Is NASA's "approval" really relavent these days? I don't just mean the Space Shuttle disasters, but their slow-moving government oriented ways, way of accountability, etc.
Seriously, I think the Russians and Chinese are far more commited to serious space programs th
Also included (Score:2, Funny)
Orbital Brothel (Score:5, Funny)
This is the kind of development that makes the budget woes of the ISS go away. If it costs <pinky> one Billlllion dollars </pinky> to put the thing up there, you've roughly broken even after 20 bookings. So be pessimistic and say that it takes 40 bookings. If they fly passengers 6 times a year, the module is "in the black" inside of 7 years. After that, it's generating revenue for the program and funding the science operations. How many other ISS modules could lay claim to that? I know I'd certainly welcome any structure that reduces the amount of money that the ISS sucks out of my wallet.
Re:Orbital Brothel (Score:3, Funny)
Talk live with our girls! watch them float by while sticking what ever you like into them!
BOOBS IN SPAAAAACE!!!!!!!!!!!
I could go on, but it only gets worse, or more 'in your face' as it were.
Re:Orbital Brothel (Score:3, Informative)
Aloha Soyuz, welcome to Nethack! (Score:2, Funny)
Capitalism (Score:2, Insightful)
No. Not *THAT* road map (Score:2)
"road map"? I hate buzz words/phrases.
The other one that really irritates me (especially as a researcher who goes to many seminars): the take-home message.
First off, I hope I came to a talk that was sophisticated enough that you actually can't sum it up into a take-home message.
Secondly, if I were dumb enough to need you to tell me you're summing your entire topic up into a 10 word phrase, then I'd need you to read directly from your Powerpoint slides...oh, I see you're doing that, too.
[sniff, sniff]A
Soooo.... (Score:2)
Woo Hoo! (Score:2)
Even better if the tourist can help out with the house cleaning! But there is a dark part of me that wish that anyone who can afford this would just burn up on reentry.
Send me to space (Score:2)
Now all I need is to register sendmetospace.com, and wait for 20 million $1 donations to my PalPal account.
Better tell my fiancee to buy those bungee cords for the zero-G "research".
Sex in Space? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's it matter? (Score:2)
Re: If NASA says no... (Score:5, Funny)
He/She will be the first orbital hermit.
Re:What's it matter? (Score:2)
Re:What's it matter? (Score:2)
Re:What's it matter? (Score:2)
Waddya know, the trolls have mastered the Art of Zen! [slashdot.org]
Re:Lottery Instead (Score:2, Insightful)
A lottery is a good idea, and has been mooted before - though it has yet to get off the ground. Feel free to organise one - I'm sure Space Adventures would be just as happy to sell the tickets(s) to the organiser of a lottery as to any one else who has the money.
In the mean time, let the rich fly. They can afford it,
Re:Lottery Instead (Score:2)