Boeing and Space Adventures to offer space tourism

The memorandum of agreement between Boeing and Space Adventures wil see the latter market future trips to low Earth orbit (LEO) on the new Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft.

Potential customers for excess seating capacity include private individuals, companies, non-governmental organisations, and US federal agencies other than NASA.  

Boeing plans to use the CST-100 to provide crew transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) and future commercial LEO platforms.

Brewster Shaw, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Space Exploration division: “By combining our talents, we can better offer safe, affordable transportation to commercial spaceflight customers.

“To date, all commercial flights for private spaceflight participants to the ISS have been contracted by Space Adventures. If NASA and the international partners continue to accommodate commercial spaceflight participants on ISS, this agreement will be in concert with the NASA administrator’s stated intent to promote space commerce in low Earth orbit.”

Boeing and Space Adventures have not yet set a price per seat for spaceflight participants, but will do so when full-scale development is under way. Boeing is designing the CST-100 spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Space Act Agreement.

The spacecraft, which can carry seven people, will be able to fly on multiple launch vehicles and is expected to be operational by 2015.

Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures, said: “We are excited about the potential to offer flights on Boeing’s spacecraft. 

“With our customer experience and Boeing’s heritage in human spaceflight, our goal is not only to benefit the individuals who fly to space, but also to help make the resources of space available to the commercial sector by bringing the value from space back to Earth.”

Space Adventures has successfully contracted and flown seven spaceflight participants on eight missions to the International Space Station.

Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia USA, it is the only company that provides orbital spaceflight opportunities to the world marketplace. Its clients have spent more than 2,000 hours in space, traveling over 35 million miles.