"Two claimants, one of them from Japan, are in consideration", the Roskosmos (Russian Space Agency) chief said at the RIA Novosti press conference on Wednesday.
He did not cite the names, saying the information is classified for commercial reasons.
"Both the projects are under way in principle. The claimants are undergoing medical examination but their preparation has not yet begun", Perminov said.
He recalled that the flight of tourists to the Russian ISS segment requires agreement from other members of the international project.
"Hopefully, one will fly in 2006 and the other in 2007", Perminov said.
In his opinion, private space tourism will rapidly develop.
"In five to seven years to come, a host of private tourist ships will fly in the near-Earth orbit", Perminov said.
He noted that in recent time private companies have gone a long way ahead in comparison with state-run companies.
The Roskosmos chief said that he fully supports the development of space tourism. One of the reasons is the possibility to earn money, which is "significant", he said. The second reason is the rate of development of this direction.
So far, tourism offered by Roskosmos is no worse than private especially in reliability, Perminov noted.
"The reliability today is beyond comparison. The reliability of private systems lags far behind the Russian worked-out program", said the chief of the Russian Space Agency.
