Russians mull more space tourist flights

Dennis Tito holds a news conference from space station Alpha accompanied by Russian cosmonauts Yuri Baturin, left, and Talgat Musabayev

By Richard Stenger
CNN

(CNN) -- Want to follow in the weightless footsteps of space tourist Dennis Tito? The private arm of the Russian space agency, Energia, is considering sending paying customers into orbit aboard its Soyuz spacecraft, according to an Energia business partner.

During their weeklong stay in space, the passengers would probably not visit the international space station, as did Tito, a California millionaire who reportedly paid up to $20 million for his trip earlier this month.

The president of MirCorp is in Moscow holding talks with Energia representatives about sending more amateur explorers into space, MirCorp spokesman Jeffrey Lenorovitz said Thursday.

"The discussions and negotiations are underway. The progress has been good so far," he said.

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The talks are too preliminary to have produced specific agreements, timetables or flight plans. But Lenorovitz said MirCorp and Energia have been considering a general arrangement whereby:

MirCorp raises private funds to help pay for the production of manned Soyuz and unmanned Progress vessels, which Energia builds for the Russian space agency.

MirCorp and Energia send paying customers on the Soyuz craft along with professional cosmonauts. The Soyuz would fly alone in orbit or dock with an orbiting module, to be built by the partners.

The module could possibly attach to the international space station, Lenorovitz said. But loud protests from NASA over Tito's visit to the multi-billion dollar outpost suggest that it will be the exclusive domain of professional astronauts and cosmonauts for some time to come.

Energia is the major stakeholder in MirCorp, a group of international investors based in Holland that had originally hoped to open the space station Mir as an orbiting hotel.

Tito had inked a deal with MirCorp to visit the aging Russian orbiter. But after Moscow sent it to its watery grave in the Pacific in March, Tito changed tactics and itineraries, dealing directly with the Russian space agency to fly to the international space station.