'To the Moon, Alice! Cash, Check or Charge?'

Company To Sell Trips Around the Moon

from The Associated Press

NEW YORK - The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending "tourists" up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: rocketing people around the far side of the moon.

The price of a round-trip ticket: $100 million.

The first mission by Space Adventures could happen in 2008 or 2009 and is planned as a stepping stone to an eventual lunar landing by private citizens.

"For the first time in history, a private company is organizing a mission to the moon," Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson said at a Manhattan news conference Wednesday, a day after space shuttle Discovery safely returned to Earth. "This mission will inspire countries of the world, citizens...our youth."

Anderson said he already has prospective "private explorers" who are interested in the trip and could afford the ticket.

The initial travelers would be the first to orbit the moon in more than 33 years, according to the Arlington, Va., company. Only 27 people have ever made such a journey.

Space Adventures plans to offer multiple trip itineraries aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA spacecraft. One possibility is a 5 1/2-day lunar flight and up to 21 days at the International Space Station; another is a nine-day mission with three days of free flight in low-Earth orbit and the rest flying around the moon. The Soyuz has 10 cubic meters of crew space, about the size of a large SUV. The cosmonaut and two passengers will sleep in reclining chairs.