Mark Shuttleworth, Not a Space Tourist
Plans to visit space as a cosmonaut
by Carol Pinchefsky
According to an article in spacer.com, Mark Shuttleworth will become the world's second paying space tourist at the going rate of US$20 million. Or will he?
Shuttleworth prefers the appellation "cosmonaut," since he will perform a token amount of flight engineering tasks aboard the Soyuz. In addition, the African will conduct scientific experiments in space, although the Russian government initially balked at his plan.
April 20 is the anticipated launch date.
So now space tourism is truly outside the American government's dominion. The next step is to reduce the price to something within the reach of millions of people, rather than a few with millions of dollars. More information can be found at www.africaninspace.com.
Shuttleworth prefers the appellation "cosmonaut," since he will perform a token amount of flight engineering tasks aboard the Soyuz. In addition, the African will conduct scientific experiments in space, although the Russian government initially balked at his plan.
April 20 is the anticipated launch date.
So now space tourism is truly outside the American government's dominion. The next step is to reduce the price to something within the reach of millions of people, rather than a few with millions of dollars. More information can be found at www.africaninspace.com.
