Excalibur Almaz Will Offer Space Tourism Aboard A Cold War-Era Soviet Spy Capsule

TO DO

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If any of you millionaire fiends want a little more variety in your space travel options, then your wish has been granted.  A new spaceflight firm, Excalibur Almaz, recently announced their upcoming service that offers orbital tours aboard Cold War-era reusable reentry vehicles.

The company, which bought numerous units of the Russian military surplus capsules, Almaz, last August, will be offering week-long trips into orbit by 2013.  Each trip will see passengers ride aboard a service module attached to an Almaz RRV  for majority of the experience. They will later transfer to the reentry capsule (either Almaz or one of their other RRV properties) for the return back to land.

Back in the Cold War, the Almaz were armed spacecrafts intended to fly into orbit under the cover of being civilian research stations.  Instead, their main function was performing spy work, right from outside the Earth.  The capsules were shelved after Russia realized (along with the US) that unmanned spy satellites were more efficient alternatives.

Excalibur Almaz will compete directly with Space Adventures, the other private firm currently offering similar orbital trips.  According to the company, they decided on the ambitious project after a private market survey that claims to have found many potential customers unexcited at the prospect of sub-orbital travel, such as what Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has been offering.

Want a slice of that new travel pie?  Get your piggy banks in order because it won’t be cheap.  Excalibur Almaz is looking at a $35 million price tag for the experience aboard one of their flights.

[Flight Global via The Register]

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2 Responses

  1. Pingback: Intergalactic Suites Space Hotel: 3 Days In Orbit For $4.4 Million | CoolThings.com | Anything and Everything Cool

  2. I think this is one of the few times imo when privatization is a really good idea. Whether we think it’s necessary or not, we need to continue to develop new forms of space travel and technology to facilitate it. What the ppl whose only argument is “we have too many problems down here to be worrying about this,” they fail to understand the two most important implications of aeronautical research. The first is for national defense… it’s bad enough that nasa has to rely on Russia to ferry them to the ISS. If we keep going at this rate, our disadvantage will only grow as they continue to develop new technologies in their space program while we pump the brakes on ours. Is air and space superiority something you really want the Russians to have? It doesn’t seem like a good idea for any one country to have, let alone one whom we have a sketchy history with. The second is that with aeronautical research comes a flood of new technologies, most of which are very applicable to us down on earth. For example, if it wasn’t for nasa, we wouldn’t have the chips that we use for non-invasive biopsies, solar energy, and a whole litany of other things (http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html#Top has a good number of inventions that most of us don’t know came from our space program). And if you’re one of those ppl that are so skeptical (or cynical imo) that you still don’t think that any of the things on this list warrant a larger investment in a privatized space industry, just remember that while you sleep at night, you most likely have nasa to thank for that, too. If you use any type of home security system, chances are they use infrared and laser technology that came out of nasa’s research (just look at the adt home security infrared camera page. They even admit that the technology came from nasa!)

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