Wealthy tourist will be the first 'private citizen to step into open space' in 2023 as Russia reveals plans to offer one paying passenger a space walk from the International Space Station
- The tourist will fly to the ISS on a Soyuz capsule and then complete a space walk
- They will become the first private citizen to step out of the ISS into open space
- The tourist will go up in 2023 and step out from the Russian part of the station
- No price has been confirmed for this trip but the first space tourist to visit the ISS paid Roscosmos $20 million for the opportunity to stay there for eight days
One wealthy individual is going to become the 'first private citizen' to step outside the International Space Station on a space walk as part of a new tourism deal.
American space tourism company Space Adventures has signed an agreement with Russia's Energia space corporation to send someone 'into open space' from the Russian part of the ISS in 2023.
The exact price of the trip hasn't been confirmed but the first businessman to visit the ISS in 2001, Dennis Tito, paid Roscosmos $20 million for an eight-day trip.
A spacewalk is more of a challenge than visiting the station alone as it requires extensive training and can be physically exhausting, according to astronauts.
The exact details of the space walk deal haven't been confirmed by Space Adventures, but two paying astronauts will be taken to the ISS in 2023 and one of them will step outside.
Astronaut Randy Bresnik completed a space walk in 2009. Space walks are used by agencies to repair parts of the ISS or install new equipment
International space station on orbit of Earth planet. Space Adventures have been taking paying passengers to the ISS since 2001 in partnership with Roscosmos
The tourist paying to undertake the space walk will fly to the ISS on a Soyuz capsule - the same spacecraft used to ferry NASA astronauts and eight other paying passengers to the station
'We plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do a space walk from the Russian segment, together with a professional Russian cosmonaut,' said Energia.
Space Adventures is advertising the walk as an opportunity to become 'the first private citizen in history to experience open space'.
Since 2001, Space Adventures and Roscosmos have taken eight paying tourists up to the ISS, but with NASA and other international partners looking to offer a similar service they are facing competition for the first time.
'We appreciate the chance to celebrate two decades of orbital space tourism with our Russian partners by opening up another first-ever experience,' said Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson.
'We applaud our colleagues at Energia for working with us to create amazing new adventures in space,” he said.
Energia is the commercial arm of Russia's space agency Roscosmos and will send the passengers to the station in a Soyuz spacecraft.
The announcement of the spacewalk also comes after Roscosmos lost its nine-year monopoly ferrying crew to the ISS for international agencies including NASA.
NASA is still paying Roscosmos, as SpaceX doesn't have the capacity to completely supplant Soyuz flights yet and Boeing's Starliner has been plagued with issues.
Until the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule became the first commercial company to take astronauts to the ISS in May, NASA was paying Roscosmos $80 million a trip to send its crew up to the station.
The announcement comes days after NASA signed a deal with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism company to promote private missions to the station.
US astronaut Terry Virts completed a space walk in 2015. The announcement of the spacewalk also comes after Roscosmos lost its nine-year monopoly ferrying crew to the ISS for international agencies including NASA
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov completes a space walk in 2014. A spacewalk is more of a challenge than visiting the station alone as it requires extensive training and can be physically exhausting, according to astronauts
Virgin Galactic will also take on responsibility for training paying passengers and preparing them for trips to the US part of the station.
SpaceX in March announced its own space tourism trip for three people next year, on board of the Crew Dragon - it's not known if that is in partnership with Virgin.
The exact cost of getting to the ISS has never been revealed but it is thought a trip with SpaceX costs NASA less than it paid Roscosmos - about $55 million per seat compared to about $80 million for a Soyuz ticket.
There are other firms developing the capability to send people to the ISS including Boeing's Starliner - which has been plagued with technical difficulties and has not yet made a successful crewed flight.
On its website, Space Adventures already advertises the space walk as a 'rare and exhilarating experience,' available only through the Russian programme.
'If you choose to fly to space on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, you have the opportunity to conduct a spacewalk, accompanied by a professional cosmonaut.'
The company together with the Russian agency previously took eight tourists to the ISS between 2001 and 2009.
THE BILLIONAIRE SPACE RACE
Jeff Bezos in front of Blue Origin's space capsule
Jeff Bezos' space tourism project with Blue Origin is competing with a similar programme in development by Space X, the rocket firm founded and run by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Virgin Galactic, backed by Richard Branson.
Bezos revealed in April 2017 that he finances Blue Origin with around $1 billion (£720 million) of Amazon stock each year.
The system consists of a pressurised crew capsule atop a reusable 'New Shepard' booster rocket.
Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world and Blue Origin has successfully used a single New Shepard Rocket six times.
At its peak, the capsule reached 65 miles (104 kilometres), just above the official threshold for space and landed vertically seven minutes after liftoff.
Crewed missions for astronauts or tourists have yet to be announced.
SpaceX appears to be leading the way in the billionaire space race with numerous launches carrying NASA equipment to the ISS and partnerships to send tourists to space by 2021.
On February 6 2018, SpaceX sent rocket towards the orbit of Mars, 140 million miles away, with Musk's own red Tesla roadster attached.
Elon Musk with his Dragon Crew capsule
NASA has already selected two astronauts who will be on-board the first manned Dragon mission.
SpaceX has also started sending batches of 60 satellites into space to help form its Starlink network.
Musk hopes this will provide an interconnected web of satellites around Earth which will beam down free internet to people all around the world.
Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are taking a different approach to conquering space.
It has repeatedly, and successfully, conducted test flights of the Virgin Galactic’s Unity spaceplane.
The first took place in December 2018 and the latest took place on February 22nd.
The flight accelerated to over 2,000 miles per hour (Mach 2.7).
More than 600 affluent customers to date, including celebrities Brad Pitt and Katy Perry, have reserved a $250,000 (£200,000) seat on one of Virgin's space trips,
The billionaire mogul has previously said he expects Elon Musk to win the race to Mars with his private rocket firm SpaceX.
Richard Branson with the Virgin Galactic craft
SpaceShipTwo can carry six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with two large windows - one to the side and one overhead.
The space ship is 60ft long with a 90inch diameter cabin allowing maximum room for the astronauts to float in zero gravity.
It climbs to 50,000ft before the rocket engine ignites. SpaceShipTwo separates from its carrier craft, White Knight II, once it's passed the 50-mile mark.
Passengers become 'astronauts' when they reach the Karman line, the boundary of Earth's atmosphere.
The spaceship will then make a sub-orbital journey with approximately six minutes of weightlessness, with the entire flight lasting approximately 1.5 hours.
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