Space Adventures

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Space Adventures Ltd. is a US company based in Vienna , Virginia , USA. It was founded in 1998 as a company operating in space tourism . It is now the leading company in this sector, and also the only company that has so far transported several tourists into space. Space Adventures became famous when the company succeeded in sending the first space tourists to the International Space Station (ISS).

Space tourists

The company makes a number of offers. This includes the "zero gravity flights" in the USA. In May 2001, the company brokered the flight of US entrepreneur Dennis Tito to the ISS, who thus became the first space tourist in history. Tito paid $ 20 million. The second customer was Mark Shuttleworth from South Africa. The third passenger was Gregory Olsen on October 1, 2005. On November 3, 2005, Space Adventures announced the flight of their next customer. It was the Japanese Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto , who was supposed to fly to the ISS in September 2006. However, in August his flight was canceled for medical reasons. In his place, Anousheh Ansari was the first female vacationer to fly into space. Next, in April 2007, Microsoft co- founder and Excel and Word inventor Charles Simonyi flew to the ISS. He was followed in October 2008 by the English-American software developer Richard Garriott . Space Adventures booked a seat on board the Soyuz TMA-14 / Soyuz TMA-13 for another space tourist in 2009 : the Canadian Guy Laliberté flew to the ISS in September 2009.

After the ISS crew had grown to six people and the exchange only took place via Soyuz spaceships, there were no more flight options to the ISS. This should change again with the annual mission of two spacemen in 2015. A Soyuz space that became free was given by Space Adventures to the English singer Sarah Brightman , but she did not use it.

For the early 2020s Template: future / in 2 years, Space Adventures is planning a tourist flight with a Soyuz spaceship to the ISS and a multi-day free flight with a Crew Dragon . The latter is to set a new altitude record for private space travelers. The company is also a partner of Boeing for the marketing of vacant seats on flights to the ISS with the spacecraft CST-100 Starliner .

DSE alpha

The most sensational offer to date was announced on August 10, 2005. The “Deep Space Expeditions Alpha” project, or DSE-Alpha for short , was intended to enable tourists to fly around the moon. The flight was supposed to last ten days and was initially planned for 2018, later "before the end of the decade" was given as the start time. Space Adventures has since dispensed with a schedule.

The flight should be carried out by Soyuz spacecraft , which are otherwise used to transport space travelers to the International Space Station . The flight was supposed to last nine days and be carried out by Roscosmos . A flight must for a tourist 150 million US dollars cost. There should be room for three people on board the spaceship, two of them tourists. In 2014, contracts were signed with two potential tourists.

The project name "DSE-Alpha" was given up. Russia is now developing the new spacecraft Federazija for flights to the moon .

Suborbital aircraft

The company has designed an airplane for tourist flights into suborbital space called Space Adventures Explorer . It is transported upwards from the carrier ship Space Adventures M-55X . To this end, the company has signed a contract with the Russian space agency RSA, on whose design the aircraft is based. Another contract was signed with Prodea, which also supported the Ansari X-Prize . Prodea is planning space stations in the United Arab Emirates (Ras Al Khaimah spaceport) and Singapore (Singapore spaceport).

concept

The concept of a space glider (orbiter), which is launched from the back of a carrier aircraft within the atmosphere, has already been investigated in projects in the past. These include the singer projects of the Junkers company from 1961 to 1974, as well as the Spiral EPOS program ( MiG-105 ) of the Tupolev and Mikoyan-Gurevich design offices in the former Soviet Union in the years 1965-1975. However, none of the projects was finally implemented.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russia, US to free spacecraft seats for tourists in 2015. Voice of Russia, August 22, 2012, archived from the original on February 21, 2013 ; accessed on October 11, 2012 .
  2. ^ Sarah Brightman To Become First-Ever Global Recording Artist To Take Spaceflight. Space Adventures, October 10, 2012, accessed October 11, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Sarah Brightman postpones flight into space. Sueddeutsche Zeitung, May 14, 2015, accessed on December 27, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Roskosmos brings two space tourists to the ISS . Golem.de, February 21, 2019.
  5. ^ Space Adventures Announces Agreement with SpaceX to Launch Private Citizens on the Crew Dragon Spacecraft . Press release from Spaceflight Adventures, February 18, 2020.
  6. ^ Jeff Foust: Space Adventures to fly tourists on Crew Dragon mission . Spacenews, February 18, 2020.
  7. ↑ a b Space Adventures: Circumlunar Mission. Retrieved on December 27, 2017 (English): "We expect our first mission to launch before the end of the decade."
  8. ↑ Space Adventures: Circumlunar Mission. Retrieved on October 16, 2017 (English): "We expect our first mission to launch before the end of the decade."
  9. ↑ RKK Energia tourists can fly around Moon in about three years - Lopota. Interfax, June 2, 2014, accessed June 3, 2014 .

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