Third Space Tourist is Set

Sgt York writes "Space Adventures announced yesterday that Gregory Olsen will be their next private space tourism client. He paid $20M to hop on a Soyuz, sometime by 2005, and go spend some time on the ISS. The cool thing is, he's not just playing tourist. He's the CEO of Sensors Unlimited, has a MS in physics, and a PhD in materials science. He's planning on using the trip to 'help inspire today's youth to dream big' and conduct a few experiments, including testing out some of his company's equipment. SA is billing him as his own 'private space program.'" There's also a space.com story.

Comments

Re:Is this news?

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

The more the merrier though. In a theoretical capital market, if there are enough buyers, the producers will make more, enabling more people to buy, and maximizing profit. It's newsworthy in that it's another step closer to non-government sponsored space flight. Personal space travel will come eventually, but maybe market forces can accelerate the process.

Sure it's a big adventure..

[ackthpt]

What could be more exciting than to go to the ISS, which has as many faults as the average Disney Theme Park. Space exploration really is becoming a farce. Too bad private industry can't seem to come up with the loot necessary to run a full-scale space program itself.

Rockets by SpaceX and others are all well and good, but not even Bill Gates has the cash to fully fund a competent space program. Assume private enterprise could and did, would it be any better than what's happening these days?

"Did you remember to close the door?" "Didn't need to, it fell off and drifted away."

Newsworthy

[Thanatopsis]

This is a newsworthy story as the this guy is going to be one of the first to use ISS to test crystal growth (which should have a clear advantage in a ISS's microgravity setting), his company's infrared cameras. It really is a business expense for him. As opposed to the first space tourists which were just that tourists. He's testing ISS as the prototype for a space based manufacturing facility.

US Reaction more laid back...

[larsoncc]

Did you notice that this time, the US reaction is more laid back? Perhaps the US will begin to take up tourists of their own (eventually).

Frankly, it surprises me that the Russians are the first to realize the profit potential.

So, here's a question... If the US and Russia started to compete for space travellers (and you had the money), which agency would you trust? Why?

It seems one is gathering experience catering their programs to the rich folks, yet the other would have some "whiz bang" technology. Tough call, really.

Re:Profit?

[WolfWithoutAClause]

The Soyuz costs about $15-25 million to launch. Of course they charge a lot more than that- 60 million for the whole rocket IRC.

So the tourists are paying most of the unit costs of the rocket- and the Russians get to send along 2 more astronauts (cosmonauts) as well.

Yes, the Soyuz rocket really is that cost effective (the Russians use this amazingly hi-tech special technology called a 'production line' and the rocket is designed from the ground-up to be cheap/rugged- unlike in the West where it is designed to be 'high performance'.) It's a very different mindset.

I remember one of the American astronauts was asking one of the technicians wearing an ordinary white coat, standing next to the rocket he was about to launch on about whether the nozzles can swivel. "Oh yes up to 30 degrees! Watch"- *wrench* (bonk- hit's the stops), *wrench* (bonk- hit the other stops). Astronaut starts sweating. (Apparently in the west they tend to go with a clean-room attitude to their rockets and treat everything gently like it is made of glass- the Russians are more pragmatic about something about to see the brutality of a launch environment.)

And of course, on the day it worked perfectly.