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[hal_9000]

From http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/science/...amp;oref=slogin

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: July 21, 2006

Walk in Space for $15 Million

The company that sent the first tourists to space is about to start offering its clients an alluring add-on: a spacewalk.

Space Adventures Ltd., a company based in Vienna, Va., that has sent three very wealthy men to orbit the earth on the International Space Station, is planning to announce today that future customers will be able to take an hour-and-a-half trip outside the station as well.

The price? Just $15 million, on top of the $20 million for the flight itself. For people who can afford $20 million for a 10-day vacation, the extra $15 million might seem like little more than overtipping.

The spacewalks have been approved by the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation, which provides training and transportation to the station on Soyuz rockets, said Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures.

Using the initials for extravehicular activity, the technical term for a spacewalk, Aleksei Krasnov, director of the Russian space agency, said in a statement that space tourists “could potentially perform an EVA” with a month’s training, and if they had the proper “physical and psychological capabilities.” The Russians have been eager to commercialize space and get most of the fees that Space Adventures collects.

[djellison]

If I had the cash.....I'd do it. It's the single biggest 'wow' factor of current spaceflight - just look at some of the images the guys take on EVA while doing ISS construction - it is, in the true sense of the word - awesome.

(PS - when mean if I had the cash, this is after the UMSF cubesat and Cosmos 2 gets funded etc )

Doug

[garybeau]

If I had the cash.....I'd do it. It's the single biggest 'wow' factor of current spaceflight - just look at some of the images the guys take on EVA while doing ISS construction - it is, in the true sense of the word - awesome.

(PS - when mean if I had the cash, this is after the UMSF cubesat and Cosmos 2 gets funded etc )

Doug

If you get the chance, see the Imax film "Space Station" When the astronaut first steps out of the hatch
and you see the expanse of space with the earth below, it literally takes your breath away. Don't settle
for the dvd and watching it on your 19" tv, it just isn't the same. Watch it an Imax theater.

It will also save you $14,999,990.