The company said in a statement that the joint venture "will fully develop and provide a set of turnkey operational space tourism systems that include the delivery of several sub-orbital launch vehicles to multiple global locations."

Prodea co-founders, Hamid, Anousheh and Amir Ansari sponsored the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which they awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, for the development and successful flights of SpaceShipOne in the summer and fall of 2004.

"Our goal in supporting the X Prize was to launch a new space industry through the introduction of commercial sub-orbital spaceflights," Anousheh Ansari said. "We partnered with Space Adventures because they have proven that there is a market for space tourism by having been the first company to fly a private citizen to space, and remains today the only company to have actually taken tourists to space."

Eric Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Space Adventures, said the X Prize "inspired and enabled the future of private spaceflights by proving that the necessary technology can be developed commercially."

The company's advisory board comprises Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin; space shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Charles Walker, Norm Thagard, Sam Durrance, Byron Lichtenberg and Pierre Thuot, and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.

Anderson and Ansari said their visions for opening the space frontier completely aligned, and they promised that the joint venture would "enable millions of people to realize their dreams of spaceflight."

Myasishchev Design Bureau, the Russian aerospace concern, will design the sub-orbital vehicle, which the partnership has named Explorer. The craft will have the capacity to transport up to five people.

"The design plans for Explorer have been perfected over the years and we, at Space Adventures, along with Prodea, have the utmost confidence that this joint venture will enable operations of the world's first commercial sub-orbital spaceflights," Anderson said.

"After much consideration and examination of the FSA's plans for sub-orbital vehicles, given their successful 45-year human spaceflight history and their clear world leadership role in the operations of commercial space activities," Anousheh Ansari said. "I feel completely confident in Explorer," she added. "This vehicle is being developed by a group of the most qualified designers and engineers in the world that have the most experience, the highest safety standards and are responsible for the most reliable and longest serving manned spacecraft in the world."

Space Adventures also announced it has reached an agreement with the FSA to provide oversight and supervision in the development process. "As they have demonstrated in many past efforts, the Russian space agency's commitment to this new and pioneering project will expedite its eventual success," Anderson said.

Related Links
Space Adventures
X Prize Foundation
Russian Federal Space Agency

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