Space Adventures, LLC, the only company that has provided human space missions to the global marketplace, outlined its forecast for commercial orbital spaceflight and announced details of how additional living space would be made available during the company's planned circumlunar mission now planned for 2015, RIA NOVOSTI.
As part of a market sizing exercise for NASA's Commercial Crew Development bid, submitted on behalf of the Boeing Company, Space Adventures estimated that by 2020 approximately 140 more private individuals will have launched to orbital space, with participants that would include private individuals, corporate, university and non-profit researchers, lottery winners and journalists. Destinations would include the ISS (International Space Station), commercial space stations and orbital free-flys.
Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures, noted last week that his firm has been working with Rocket Space Corporation Energia to enhance the Soyuz TMA configuration. Anderson said the most important of the enhancement modifications is the addition of a second habitation module to the Soyuz TMA lunar complex. The additional module would launch with the Block DM propulsion module and rendezvous with the Soyuz spacecraft in low-Earth orbit.
"Space Adventures will once again grace the pages of aerospace history, when the first private circumlunar mission launches. We have sold one of the two seats for this flight and anticipate that the launch will occur in 2015," said Richard Garriott, vice-chairman of VIRGINIA-based Space Adventures. "Having flown on the Soyuz, I can attest to how comfortable the spacecraft is, but the addition of the second habitation module will only make the flight that more enjoyable," Garriott told those listening to a recent teleconference event.
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