New Passenger Spaceship Being Developed |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Sunday, 19 February 2006 22:25 |
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Space Adventures, the Virginia-based company that has helped put three millionaires into orbit, has teamed up with Russias Federal Space Agency and Prodea, the Texas-based financial backers of the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private suborbital flight, to develop a new type of suborbital passenger spaceship.
The contract involves the development of a fleet of Explorer spacecraft, able to carry up to five people, based on the C-21 concept produced by Russia's Myasishchev Design Bureau for Space Adventures. A rocket plane would be flown up by a carrier aircraft, then launched to altitudes above 100 kilometres.
Explorers will be sold to operators who would run the flights out of spaceports around the globe, which could be in the United States, Singapore, Australia, Dubai or other locations. There have already been reports of plans to develop spaceports in Singapore and the Arab emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, near Dubai.
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