Russia Announces End to Space Tourism in 2010

epsas writes "On Cosmonaut's Day (April 12th 2008) the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) announced that they will cease it's $40,000,000-a-flight space tourism enterprise. Vitaly Perminov, the head of Roskosmos, elaborated on this statement by citing national criticism of the space tourism project; all the while reiterating Roskosmos's focus on the International Space Station and the new launch site at Vostochny Cosmodrome: 'Vitaly Lopota, the president of the Energia space rocket corporation, said he believes space tourism is a forced measure compensating for insufficient financing of the Russian space program.' This statement (made the day before) by Vitaly Lopota follows another announcement that 'Energia is ready to send missions to the Moon and Mars if told to do so by the government.'"

Comments

so??

[caffeinemessiah]

italy Lopota, the president of the Energia space rocket corporation, said he believes space tourism is a forced measure compensating for insufficient financing of the Russian space program

And this is bad...why?? If space programs are languishing in funding for either development or research, why not charge rich suckers (with dreams just like us) huge amounts of money to fund it? If you have the infrastructure, it sounds lucrative. And I'd be willing to bet that the market would support even more ridiculous prices than $40 mil.

Re:so??

[freedumb2000]

Instead of canceling it, they could create a huge media event around it. They are after all the ones to even offer comercialized space tourism, if that is not something to be proud of. In the beginning they might have done it out of desperation, but if they wanted they could bring it to the next level now. Too bad really, to have misplaced national pride get in the way, but I guess Putin stands for backwards thinking with long passed national values (which he imprints on on his citizens). Too bad really.

Re:so??

[baboo_jackal]

This is more about Russian national pride. They felt humiliated at the state of desperation they had sunk to, so now that their economy is doing better, they're looking to restore some of the prestige and remove the "Filene's Basement" aura now attached to their space program.
If you were to replace all the "they/their" with "Putin/Putin's," you'd be spot-on correct.

Anthropomorphizing nations and their macroscopic behavior as if "all citizens" were behind it, and that a given nation "feels/thinks/believes" one particular thing in unanimity (or even on the balance) is a common basis of flawed statements and arguments about "national policy."

Unfortunate

[Chairboy]

The space tourist was paying most of the cost of the Soyuz booster/capsule while allowing the RSA to continue meeting its commitments to the project. This is a step backwards for space, government funding doesn't have the same potential for long term growth that commercial money does. Look at the airplane, for instance. Government funding did big things, but the real growth and expansion came with private funds.

Re:Unfortunate

[khallow]

Even that growth is limited. The power of commercial endeavors in space is that they pay for themselves. So that means there's feedback in the system encourage further investment in space.

Re:Drat! saving the money in my penny jar for this

[POTSandPANS]

The moon is quite important to a mars trip. Getting from earth to the moon uses a lot of fuel. Going to mars from the moon is easier, especially if you send some extra fuel and supplies to the moon before you get there. Going to the moon also gives you a chance to test out your equipment in a harsh environment while you are still close to home.

Re:Public private partnership that works

[Cassius Corodes]

I suspect its a pride issue rather than anything else. To them having paid seats looks like they have to go around begging to get enough money to take off.

That would make "that bloke" Branson happy

[mapkinase]

End of Russian space tourism - more bucks to private space programs.

Re:That would make "that bloke" Branson happy

[call-me-kenneth]

Except that the Virgin/Scaled Composites thing is just a Mach 2 rollercoaster straight up to 100km, then plummet back to earth; whereas the Russian have a real space program, you know, that actually puts things in orbit. That's much, much harder to do.

Re:Public private partnership that works

[TheLink]

Pride? Begging?

"space tourism" was the most important experiment the ISS was ever involved in.

To have your space program sustainable due to willing customers rather than solely dependent on government enforced taxes is what I call making progress[1]. One of the milestones in aerospace and the Russians were pioneers.

It is a step backwards if they discontinue space tourism (and do not move it to some other agency/organization).

[1] When people stop clapping hands and cheering every time after space vehicles somehow manage to lift off without blowing up, that's even more progress ;).