Dmitry Loskutov, General Director of Glavkosmos, spoke about a possible flight of a space tourist from Russia to the ISS. According to him, such a flight is possible in 2024. Prior to this, the Russians did not fly to the ISS as tourists, except for director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild, who during the filming of the film were in orbit in the status of participants in a space flight. This is the status assigned to space tourists. Professional astronauts fly as flight engineers or ship/station commanders.

“One of the wealthy Russian citizens could fly to the ISS, of which there are enough here, including at this forum,” Loskutov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He clarified that now there is only one flight opportunity for tourists in 2024.

The possibility of continuing flights to the station and further may appear only after a decision is made whether to extend its operation after 2024. At the same time, Glavkosmos is ready to organize flights for tourists on the Soyuz spacecraft in low Earth orbit without docking with the station.

In October 2021, Glavkosmos entered into a preliminary agreement with four space tourists who could fly on two Soyuz spacecraft in 2024. On a three-seat Soyuz, two tourists can go to the station together with the commander of the ship, a professional cosmonaut.

In 2001-2009, seven tourists were delivered to the ISS on Soyuz spacecraft under contracts with Space Adventures, including twice the American Charles Simonyi. According to various sources, they paid from 20 to 40 million dollars for their space flights.

Another flight took place in December 2021, when Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa went to the station along with his assistant Ezo Hirano. Also, tourist flights to the ISS are carried out by American ships Crew Dragon of Elon Musk's SpaceX company.

bbabo.Net