Russia will take two Japanese tourists to the ISS at the end of 2021

(Space Adventures / Roscosmos)

Roscosmos has announced the composition of the crew for the first tourist flight to the ISS since the late 2000s.

In addition to the Russian crew commander, two Japanese space tourists will go to the station in December 2021, including Yusaku Maezawa

Maezawa is going to fly around the moon in the Starship spacecraft in 2023.

In the 2000s, Roscosmos has repeatedly sent tourists to the Russian segment of the ISS.

In total, from 2001 to 2009, Roscosmos, together with Space Adventures sent seven tourists to the ISS, one of whom, Charles Simonyi, flew to the station twice.

In the late 2010s, Roscosmos again began to develop space tourism.

The Russian space agency announced it was going to organize an orbit flight without docking with the ISS together with Space Adventures.

Now the names of the future cosmonauts and the changes in the flight plan have become known.

On December 8, 2021, three people will go into space aboard the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft: Russian crew commander Alexander Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and video director Yozo Hirano.

Both tourists passed a medical examination and, according to its results, were admitted to pre-flight preparation.

In June, they will begin preparations in the Star City near Moscow, which will last three months.

After launch, the spacecraft will dock to the ISS, and the tourists, along with the crew commander, will transfer to the station.

The flight will last 12 days, during which Maezawa and Hirano are planning to shoot videos for their YouTube channel.

Notably, Maezawa also plans to become the first space tourist to leave Earth's orbit.

In 2018, SpaceX announced that it would send the billionaire around the moon in the promising starship spacecraft in 2023.

While Starship is still in the testing phase, its prototype recently made its first fully successful high-altitude flight, taking off 10 kilometers and landing thereafter.

Source:

• Roscomos: https://www.roscosmos.ru/31043/

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