[FPSPACE] Fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 seats secured for Space Adventures' clients

[Chris Faranetta]

FYI-

 

CF

Space Adventures Announces the Contract Finalization of Future
Spaceflight Participant Seats

Fall of 2008 and spring of 2009 seats secured for Space Adventures'
clients

July 18 2007

Space Adventures, the world's leading space experiences company,
announced today that it has finalized contracts with the Federal Space
Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA) for two commercial seats aboard
upcoming flights of the Soyuz TMA spacecraft. The company became world
renown in 2001 with the launch of California businessman Dennis Tito and
since then, has launched four other privately-funded individuals to
space. Space Adventures has purchased the fall of 2008 Soyuz TMA-13 and
the spring of 2009 Soyuz TMA-14 private spaceflight opportunities. Each
experience includes cosmonaut training and over a week in space orbiting
the Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"With the successful flights of the first and only five private space
explorers, we not only created the space tourism industry, but now,
because of the global market demand, we have secured two additional
Soyuz seats and have proposed to the Russian space agency the purchase
of seats in 2010, and beyond," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of
Space Adventures. "The unique provision to Space Adventures of these
commercial Soyuz seats has enabled my team to engage with potential
clients from all over the world who have the interest in private
spaceflight, the financial capability and the insatiable desire to
explore."

Space Adventures will announce the identities of the next orbital
spaceflight candidates in the coming weeks. "We have finalized the
contracts with those who will fly on future seats, but we are always
willing to speak to multiple individuals for a specific seat and
encourage other interested parties to step forward and contact us,
because the most willing and committed ultimately gets to go first."

Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private
explorers to space, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in
Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today
for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around
the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight
qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital
spacecrafts. The company's advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker
Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron
Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker,
Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.