According to the Russian "Izvestia" website reported on December 8, Russian astronaut Alexander Misurkin and two Japanese space tourists - billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano - arrived at the International Space Station on the 8th. The launch, flight and docking of the Soyuz manned spacecraft were successfully completed.
According to reports, at 10:38 Moscow time on December 8, the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft successfully lifted off from the Baikonur launch site. Nearly 9 minutes later, the spacecraft entered an orbit 200 kilometers from Earth.
The flight was co-organized by space tourism operators Space Exploration of the United States and the Russian National Space Corporation.
According to the report, at 16:41 Moscow time, the spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station, and two space tourists and Russian astronauts successfully entered the space station. They will have access to the Modules of Russia and the United States on the International Space Station. They are scheduled to return to Earth on December 20.
The report also said that Maezawa and Hirano were the first tourists to board the International Space Station in 12 years. Earlier similar space tourism took place in October 2009.
Andrei Jonin, corresponding academician of the Russian Academy of Astronautics, recalled: "The Time when the International Space Station first received space tourists was at the beginning of this century. At that time, there were still empty seats on the Russian manned spacecraft flying to the space station... The capacity at the time allowed Russia to launch 3 to 4 Soyuz ships a year, which exceeded the launch needs of Russia and the United States. But after NASA's space shuttle program ended, there were no more empty seats on Russian manned spacecraft. Now things have changed again. Space Exploration Technologies' manned Dragon spacecraft began to fly to the International Space Station, so there was another empty space on the Soyuz. ”
Sergey Kostenko, head of space exploration in Russia, said it would cost about $50 million to fly to the International Space Station on the Soyuz spacecraft.
"For space tourists, the cost of flying [on a Russian spacecraft] is cheaper than flying on another partner's ship... If you fly in a NASA manned spacecraft, the price per seat is about $90 million. ”
Source: Reference News Network
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