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Source: Reuters
Russia will charge US astronauts US$51 million ($86 million) per
return trip to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2012 and
will resume selling seats to space tourists, Russian news agencies
reported.
NASA needs to use the Russian Soyuz capsule because its own Space
Shuttle will be retired next year after nearly three decades in
service and a replacement is not due until 2014 at the
earliest.
Russia's own plans for a new spacecraft are running behind
schedule, with the planned unveiling of a mock-up now delayed by a
year to 2010, Interfax quoted Anatoly Perminov head of Russian
space agency Roskosmos as saying.
"We've agreed with our American partners the sum of $51m, starting
in 2012," Perminov was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news
agency.
He did not specify how much astronauts will be charged between 2010
and 2012, but in 2006 Russia charged the United States US$21.8
million ($37 million) per return flight to the ISS.
Since then the price for of a space tourist ticket to the ISS
has climbed to US$35 million from US$20 million.
Roskosmos earlier said that US billionaire Charles Simonyi's March
flight to the ISS would be the last by a space tourist as a
doubling of the space station crew to six would leave no room for
amateurs.
But as Kazakhstan has cancelled its plans to send a trained
cosmonaut into space this September, the Soyuz now has one free
seat, Perminov was quoted as saying.
He said the tourist would not be the last.
"This form of tourism will continue," Perminov was quoted by
Itar-Tass as saying.
NASA and all other partners will be solely dependent on Russia for
crew transport after the shuttle ceases operations.
NASA plans to replace the shuttles with Apollo-style capsules that
in addition to travelling to the space station will be able to fly
astronauts to the moon's surface.
