Virginia Firm Offers Trips to Moon for a Hefty Price
Aug. 11–One hundred million dollars could always get you a long way, but one company says it may get you farther than you ever thought possible: to the far side of the moon.
That’s what it will cost you to get into space and around the moon, Space Adventures Ltd. said yesterday.
The notion of ordinary people flying to the moon may seem, well, out of this world, especially after the problems the space shuttle encountered, but the Arlington, Va.-based company, which has already sent two “space tourists” to the orbiting International Space Station, said at a Manhattan news conference that a ride around the moon would be possible, perhaps as soon as 2008.
“It’s 100 percent feasible,” chief executive Eric Anderson told Newsday. “We spent a long time studying this.”
Anderson said it’s possible because of Space Adventures’ “long-standing agreement” with Russian officials, including RSC Energia, a private rocket and space company.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft would be used, flown by a Russian. The craft could accommodate two passengers. They would become the first humans to circle the moon in 33 years.
Anderson said the flights would be more than just a way for the wealthy to tour space.
“This is exploration,” Anderson said. “This is private enterprise and private companies showing that we can do it, too.”
Private companies have been trying to make money in space for years. Few have been successful. Charles Lurio, a consultant in Boston, said that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
“These small companies are trying to develop and serve these markets,” Lurio said. “What we need is more companies and more competition and more markets.”
Space Adventures, an 8-year-old company, was behind efforts to send Dennis Tito, an American business executive, and Mark Shuttleworth, an African entrepreneur, on Soyuz spaceships for stays on the space station a few years ago. They reportedly paid $20 million each for their flights.
The company said it has “identified over a thousand people around the world who have the financial resources to participate in an expedition to the moon.”
Anderson identified one as Gregory Olsen, co-founder of Sensors Unlimited in Princeton, N.J. Olsen is now in training in Moscow for a mission in October to the station.
John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, said the plan is feasible.
“These are systems the Russians have been operating successfully for 40 years,” Logsdon said. He said he would be interested in making such a flight, “but not at that price.”
—–
To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com
Copyright (c) 2005, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.