The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos plans to send Soyuz spacecraft with two space tourists to the International Space station (ISS) after 2013, the head of Roscosmos' manned flights department, Alexei Krasnov, said.
"Such a proposal is under consideration of Roscosmos' and the American Space Advantures [company]," Krasnov said adding that a flight is due not earlier than 2013. "There are also detailed offers, which we will study in Washington at a meeting of space agencies' heads," he continued.
Two tourists will be joined by a Russian professional space crew commander.
Russia stopped sending tourists to space last year because the International Space Station (ISS) crew has increased from three to six, and all the places on board the spacecraft have been reserved for Russian and foreign astronauts.
Russia's RSC Energia corporation recently said it had the capacity to build five Soyuz spacecraft per year instead of four, meaning that at least one Soyuz spacecraft could be used for space tourism purposes in the future.
Space tourists started flying to the ISS in 2001.
MISSION CONTROL, September 25 (RIA Novosti)
