A memorandum of agreement between the Boeing Company and space tourist company, Space Adventures, may lead to passenger seats available on Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation-100 (CST-100) spacecraft to LEO.
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 continues to advance its design for the CST-100 spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Space Act Agreement.
The CST-100 spacecraft, which can carry seven people, will be able to fly on multiple launch vehicles and is expected to be operational by 2015, according to Boeing officials.
“By combining our talents, we can better offer safe, affordable transportation to commercial spaceflight customers,” said Brewster Shaw, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Space Exploration division.
Space Adventures has successfully contracted and flown seven spaceflight participants on eight missions to the International Space Station.
Eric Anderson, co-founder and chairman of Space Adventures, noted in a press statement today: “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.”
The agreement announced today adds to the players that are working on tourist-class space vehicles.
Now under development are a number of suborbital-carrying craft, such as Virgin Galactic’s air-launched SpaceShipTwo – a six person, two pilot vehicle. Also hoping to make a business case for suborbital tourism are such private firms as XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin and Armadillo Aerospace.
By LD/CSE