NEW YORK — Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google Inc. to organize all the information on Earth, has now turned his gaze to space. Brin slapped down a $5 million deposit so he can blast off to orbit, Space Adventures Ltd. said Wednesday.
Brin becomes the highest-profile customer to date for the private space travel company, which since 2001 has sent five wealthy clients to the international space station aboard Russian rockets. Each ticket cost $20 million or more, a price that's climbing.
Next to go is video game designer Richard Garriott of Austin, who is scheduled to take off Oct. 12 on a $30 million trip. Garriott, whose father was a NASA Skylab and space shuttle astronaut, would be the first second-generation U.S. space traveler.
Garriott said Wednesday at a news conference that he plans to conduct several government and commercial experiments in orbit, such as researching proteins for drug companies. He also intends to connect with gamers from space through his online science fiction world in "Tabula Rasa."
No launch date has been set for Brin, but his payment gives him priority access to future available spots, the company said. He still must pay a hefty balance for his fare, which may cost more than $35 million.
"I'm a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of space and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space," Brin said in a statement.
Space Adventures, founded a decade ago and based in Virginia, also has agreed with the Russian space agency to launch the first dedicated, private mission to the station in the second half of 2011, CEO Eric Anderson told reporters at the storied Explorer's Club in Manhattan.
The mission will have two seats for paying passengers on the three-person Russian Soyuz. The third position is for a professional cosmonaut. Previously, the company has paid for single spare seats on Soyuz already scheduled for space station visits.
Private space launches, sometimes called space tourism, have brought needed cash to the Russian space program.
However, doubts have surfaced about the future of such trips after the Russian space program chief said in April that the country may have fewer Soyuz seats to sell because of the planned expansion of the space station crew in 2010.
Anderson said the 2011 private trip is an additional mission paid for by Space Adventures. He would not reveal the cost of the mission, which is for sale to individual clients, businesses and institutions.
The overall cost of flights also has been rising because of the weakened U.S. dollar and labor and materials expenses with the spacecraft, spokeswoman Stacey Tearne said.
Google's Brin, who has the option of selling his reserved seat, bought the first of six "founding explorer" slots that allow the owners to go to space later when their schedules permit, Space Adventures said.
Google's leaders have long been interested in space travel. The company is sponsoring a $30 million competition for the first private team to send a robot to the moon that travels about 1,500 feet and sends video and data back to Earth.
Garriott, an early Space Adventures backer, said all the private investing in his career has been for the privatization of space.
"Humans should be in space because it's valuable to be in space," he said, adding that he is already thinking about a second trip.
Garriott has been preparing for his flight at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. He said he is going back there Saturday for the toughest part: learning Black Sea open-water survival.
So far, the training has been less physically demanding than expected, Garriott said. He said his workouts in Austin at a boxing gym and running are harder.
A surprise, he said, was the volume of technical information he had to learn to stay safe and be productive in orbit.
"Nine months (of training) is not that long a time," he said. "I work really hard out there to master all the intricacies."
Another surprise was getting past the notion that the Soyuz spacecraft is antiquated technology, he said, calling it a "magnificent" vehicle that has been constantly updated.
The Soyuz has recently had some rough returns to Earth, but Garriott said he was confident in the quality and safety of the craft and the Russian program.
In a way to recognize his father's work in space and study environmental changes, Garriott said he will take many of the same photos of the Earth that his father snapped from orbit.
He called linking his flight to his online science fiction game, which involves interplanetary travel, "a great opportunity that can't be missed." He said the details would be announced in the next few weeks.
The effort could generate attention for "Tabula Rasa," which so far has disappointed in attracting a large audience.
The game's initial launch "wasn't as strong as we might have hoped," Garriott said. "We also came out right against a bunch of top-selling Christmas-season titles, so we had somewhat of a soft beginning, but we have a very enthusiastic core fan base.
"We still have high confidence that it will earn its place," he said. "Online games are 10-year plays."
source : statesman.com
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