A Russian company will conduct the first test flight for its tourist spacecraft in 2019-2020 with much cheaper tickets than previous services, an executive said Tuesday.
The production of the reusable suborbital capsule will start in 2018, Pavel Pushkin, CEO of CosmoCourse company, was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.
The spacecraft is expected to be launched from either Russian Kapustin Yar cosmodrome or from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, said Pushkin.
After three-day training and medical examination, space tourists will be offered with a 15-minute flight to an altitude of 180-220 km in a travel group of six tourists and one coach.
Each person will experience the state of weightlessness for five to six minutes at the cost of 200,000 to 250,000 U.S. dollars, according to CosmoCourse's web site.
The Russian Federal Space Agency organized several tourist trips to the International Space Station for 20 to 35 million U.S. dollars apiece between 2001 and 2009.
Pushkin said his company plans to start ticket booking in early 2018.
"A couple of people have expressed their strong desire to fly and are looking forward to the medical examination," said the CEO.
CosmoCourse was established in 2014 by high-tech developer Skolkovo Foundation.
