Space Forum / Astronomy / November 2007

The next space tourist will be Richard Garriott, a Texan. The flight is
scheduled for October 2008.

The list I have so far is:

Richard Garriott (Son of Skylab and Shuttle Astronaut Owen Garriott) (United
States). Expected to fly on Soyuz TMA-13 in 2008.

Francisco Navarro-Grau (Peru) expected to fly in August 2008.

Vladimir Gruzdev (Russia). Expected to fly in 2009.

Gruzdev is a United Russia pro-presidential party member. The United Russia
party might even pay the estimated $25 million for the flight from the party
funds, but who knows!. He has already undergone a medical examination and
been given approval to begin the cosmonaut training program. Funnily enough
he previously participated in the Arktika 2007 mission, the one that caused
controversy when it placed a Russian flag on the seabed near the North Pole.

Also, as of November 2007 the Virgin Galactic group has reportedly had
pre-sold nearly 200 seats for their space tourism flights when they
eventually get going. They aren't quite sure at the moment when that might
be especially after the fatal accident at Scaled Composites when they were
working on the Virgin project.

If I come across an Australian I'll let you know. I will try to find out
tomorrow

Cheers

Andy

Mr Andrew R Green BSc(Hons) FRAS

StarDome Astronomy & Astronautics

www.stardomeplanetarium.co.uk
www.stardome-planetarium.com

All astronauts that were born down under

Philip K. Chapman - Never Flew a Mission

Paul D. Scully-Power - Flew on STS-41G in 1984

Andy Thomas - Flew on

STS-77 in 1996

STS-89/Mir/STS91 in 1998

STS-102 in 2001

STS-114 in 2005

You can go and see an exhibition of Andy Thomas memorabilia including a
flight suit at "SkyWatch" Observatory in Coonabarabran NSW and go and see
more memorabilia like flown flags on STS Missions involving Thomas at the
Parkes Radio Observatory Visitor centre. Can highly recommend both places.

Cheers

Andy

Here is the article:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/thrillionaire-nik-aims-for-the-moon/2007/
11/25/1195975868000.html

It seems Halik was Owen Garriott's Back up. Though the amounts of cash
quoted in this article are way of line! my several million dollars!

However! just  to get into Earth Orbit he is going to have to Spend US
$30,000,000 back up or not if he wants to actually fly to ISS & to get to
the moon as he wants to, Space Adventures are quoting US$100,000,000 as a
minimum. Maybe Ansari and Shuttleworth could afford that, not sure about
this guy.

A back up tourist has already leapfrogged the prime candidate on medical
grounds, that was Anousheh Ansari flying to ISS when she took Daisuke
Enomoto's place. Incidentally, my picture flew to ISS on that particular
mission.

Cheers

Andy

Mr Andrew R Green BSc(Hons) FRAS
StarDome Astronomy & Astronautics
www.stardomeplanetarium.co.uk
www.stardome-planetarium.com