Tourists to ISS Two at a Time Starting 2012

Matt_dk writes: The U.S. firm Space Adventures said on Friday it will be able to send two space tourists into orbit on Soyuz spacecraft from 2012 onwards. "We have been working on this project for a number of years" said Sergey Kostenko, the head of the company's office in Russia. Each Soyuz will carry two tourists and a professional astronaut. One of the tourists will have to pass a year-and-a-half training course as a flight engineer. Space Adventures has been authorized by the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos to select and contract candidates for space tourist trips.