Space Adventures, Inc. is an American space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. Its offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights (with the option to participate in a spacewalk), and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours. Plans announced thus far include sub-orbital and lunar spaceflights, though these are not being actively pursued at present. Nine of its clients have participated in the orbital spaceflight program with Space Adventures, including one who took two separate trips to space.
History Space Adventures was founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson — president and CEO — with several other entrepreneurs from the aerospace, adventure travel and entertainment industries. The company is headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, with an office in Moscow. Space Adventures offers a variety of programs, such as orbital spaceflight missions to the International Space Station (ISS), circumlunar missions around the Moon, zero gravity flights, cosmonaut training programs, spaceflight qualification programs, and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft. Since 2001, Space Adventures has launched seven clients on eight successful missions to the ISS. In April 2001, the company sent American businessman Dennis Tito for a reported US$20 million payment, making him the first space tourist. South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth did the same in April 2002, becoming the first African in space. Gregory Olsen became the third private citizen to travel to the ISS in October 2005, followed by the first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, who completed her 10-day orbital mission in September 2006. Charles Simonyi, an ex-executive at Microsoft, became the fifth space tourist who visited the ISS in April 2007, then again in March 2009. He is the world's first private space explorer who launched to space twice. In 2008, game developer Richard Garriott, the first second-generation U.S. astronaut, became the sixth client to travel to the ISS. In October 2009, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté became the first Canadian space tourist to have launched into space. As of 2007, the company's advisory board included Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Space Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, and Charles Walker, Skylab/Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.
In January 2008, Space Adventures acquired Zero Gravity Corporation, which is the first and only FAA-approved provider of weightless flights to the general public. In 2015, English soprano Sarah Brightman had been expected to become the eighth client of Space Adventures to visit the ISS, paying US$52 million for her flight, but the company announced that Brightman had postponed her trip "for personal family reasons". Brightman was initially expected to be replaced by another Space Adventures client, Japanese advertisement entrepreneur Satoshi Takamatsu; however, in June 2015, the company announced that Takamatsu had elected to postpone his flight to prepare for "art projects that [he] would like to perform in space [that] require cutting-edge technology both in hardware and software". The spot was eventually taken by Kazakh government cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov. Due to the retirement of the Space Shuttle, from 2011 to 2020, NASA contracted with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to purchase a large number, the majority, of seats on the Soyuz. Space tourism transport to the ISS became possible once again after NASA signed contracts with two commercial carriers in 2020, and by mid-2020, Space Adventures had contracted for two of the available Soyuz seats in 2021.
Orbital commercial space business
Clients who have flown in space
Dennis Tito Space Adventures' first orbital spaceflight client, and the world's first private space explorer, launched to the ISS in April 2001 on Soyuz TM-32. American businessman Dennis Tito received training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City in Russia. Tito participated in Space Adventures' other programs, including a zero-gravity flight, centrifuge training, and a supersonic jet flight before his orbital flight.
Mark Shuttleworth Mark Shuttleworth spent 10 days in space. The first African in space, he launched with two crewmates, Russian commander Yuri Gidzenko and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori. They launched on Soyuz TM-34 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 25 April 2002. Before his flight, Shuttleworth completed Space Adventures' Orbital Pre-Qualification Program and underwent almost eight months of training and medical exams, including a one-week orientation program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. A zero-gravity flight, centrifuge training, and spacecraft communication, guidance, and control system lessons for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and ISS were also part of his training. Shuttleworth dedicated his flight to educating South African youth and conducting scientific research.
Gregory Olsen Gregory Olsen completed over 900 hours of training in Star City, Russia, in preparation for his mission. He and his crewmates launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 1 October 2005, aboard Soyuz TMA-7. While aboard the ISS, he participated in a research program prepared by the European Space Agency (ESA) that studied the human body's response to the microgravity environment. Through Amateur Radio on the ISS, Dr. Olsen contacted high school students in New Jersey and New York.
Anousheh Ansari Anousheh Ansari lifted off on Soyuz TMA-9 on 18 September 2006, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Ansari became the fourth (and first female) space tourist. During her eight-day stay onboard the ISS, Ansari conducted four experiments for the European Space Agency, including researching the mechanisms behind anemia, how changes in muscles influence lower back pain, consequences of space radiation on ISS crew members, and different species of microbes that have made a home for themselves on the space station.
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