杏吧原创

START saving now for the holiday of a lifetime. Russia plans to have a space
station specially for tourists in orbit by 2004, it announced last week.

MirCorp, a company part-owned by Russia鈥檚 space corporation Energia, says it
has signed an agreement with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency to build the
new outpost, called Mini Station 1. Jeffrey Manber, MirCorp鈥檚 president, says he
is confident the station will be built. 鈥淭he agreement is part of MirCorp鈥檚
plans to kick-start full-scale commercial space programmes,鈥� he says.

MirCorp was formed in 2000 to help find funding for Russia鈥檚 ageing Mir space
station. The smaller, cheaper Mini Station 1 would host three cosmonauts for up
to 20 days at a time, says Manber. It would cost around $100 million to
build and would last for 15 years. MirCorp expects trips to Mini Station 1 to
cost less than $20 million.

Meanwhile NASA has done a U-turn on its space tourism policy and is
considering taking paying passengers into space. 鈥淣ASA is doing its own internal
review to develop a policy on commercial activity,鈥� says a NASA spokeswoman.
鈥淭his includes looking at flying citizens some time in the future.鈥� The agency
protested loudly earlier this year when the Russians took the first space
tourist, Dennis Tito, to the International Space Station.

Even space tourism enthusiasts say it is an ambitious scheme. John Moltzan of
Space Adventures, the American company that helped Dennis Tito into space, says
MirCorp may find it difficult to finance building the station. 鈥淚t sounds like a
much more daunting task than building an extra module for the ISS,鈥� he says.
鈥淏ut we appreciate every development that helps further space tourism.鈥�