A private citizen and billionaire will become the first to take space tourism to the next level. In doing so, it will take a segment of the tourism industry to a new level after Russia announced it would stage its first spacewalk for a tourist at the International Space Station.
The Energia space corporation, which is part of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, made the announcement that it would carry out the first-ever tourist spacewalk in 2023. The plan, which is jointly being conducted by private U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures and Energia. The adventure will send two tourists to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz capsule.
Speaking on the joint adventure, Energia said; “We plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do a spacewalk from the Russian segment, together with a professional Russian cosmonaut.”
Space Adventures and Russia have already sent several billionaire tourists into space in the past. This includes Dennis Tito, who was the first. However, the new plan will see a private citizen being the first to ever go for a walk outside of the space station.
Chairman and CEO of Space Adventures, Eric Anderson commented on the announcement, and joint venture stating; “A private citizen completing a spacewalk would be another huge step forward in private spaceflight. We applaud our colleagues at Energia for working with us to create amazing new adventures in space.”
The cost for this opportunity has not been released as of yet. However, Space Adventures has stated that it is now looking for someone with very deep pockets who wishes to go on this journey and be the first tourist to go on a spacewalk.
The Training
Anyone interested who can afford such an experience will have to undergo extensive training prior to the flight in Russia. This will be above and beyond that needed to train for the spacewalk properly.
This is one of several missions planned exclusively for space tourists by Russia over the next several years. Recently, Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Galactic company recently signed off on a deal with NASA for private space missions, and SpaceX’s Elon Musk is also looking at sending multiple tourists into space over the next several years.