On Wednesday, October 27, Glavkosmos signed an agreement with four space tourists who will fly on Soyuz spacecraft in 2024. This was announced by the company's CEO Dmitry Loskutov at the International Astronautical Congress IAC-2021 in Dubai.
"Today Glavkosmos signed a preliminary agreement to provide four seats in 2024, which means two commercial flights (Soyuz ships) in 2024 with customers. I will not say what kind of clients they are," Loskutov added.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the company has received a number of other requests for tourist flights into space.
On the eve of the General Director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that Russia would postpone part of the planned rocket launches to the French Kourou cosmodrome. According to him, the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana can be turned into a platform for space tourism.
On October 5, the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched with the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft with a cinema crew. In orbit, a film crew consisting of director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild shot a feature film in space. The picture, called "The Challenge", will be a joint project of Roscosmos, Channel One and the studio Yellow, Black and White.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft at the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston was called flawless.
The descent vehicle of the Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft, where cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, Peresild and Shipenko were, landed in Kazakhstan on October 17. As noted in Roscosmos, the crew members feel well. Peresild admitted on her return that she did not want to say goodbye to space. The artist noted that the landing took place in normal mode and she feels well.
On September 16, Loskutov said that in the next 15-20 years, orbital flights of tourists are unlikely to become massive due to the high cost. According to him, so far no private company can do without financial support from the state. For example, the company Space X has earned S28 billion to date, of which 56% is accounted for by state financing, another 24% of profits are private investments, Loskutov added.