By JOSH ZEMBIK, Post Wire Services
June 12, 2008
Now that he's conquered cyberspace, Google co-founder Sergey Brin wants to visit outer space.
The billionaire mogul has made a $5 million down payment to reserve a seat on a future private flight with Space Adventures, a space travel company.
The full tab for the trip - either to the International Space Station as early as 2011 or possibly around the moon, if that option gets off the ground - will certainly top $35 million.
"I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space," Brin said in a statement.
He was not present at the press conference at the Explorers Club on the Upper East Side where Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson announced the creation of an Orbital Mission Explorers Circle - offering six memberships at $5 million each for those who want to snag a reservation on future private orbital space flights.
Brin, 34, became the first founding investor.
Until now the company has had an arrangement with the Russian space agency to buy a spare seat on a regularly scheduled Soyuz mission to the space station..
It has sent five megarich tourists there so far.
But now Space Adventures says it has struck a partnership with the Russian space agency that will launch the first entirely private Soyuz flight to the space station in 2011.
Anderson said they hope to send one mission a year to the space station, with two seats available for paying passengers.
He said he would love to make it possible for the non-rich to explore space - perhaps by giving away a seat on an orbital space flight in a lottery or competition.
"It very much has been a vision of Space Adventures to enable the common person who may have a few dollars to spend for a chance to go to space to buy such a chance and then to possibly win it," Anderson said. "We would love to find a way to make that happen."
The next to blast off with Space Adventures will be Richard Garriott, a computer game developer and son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott. Richard heads out for the space station on Soyuz Oct. 12. He'll shell out $35 million.
"It's symbolic, because we're actually creating the next generation of space exploration by sending the son of an astronaut into space," Anderson said.
