Теги форумов: Space Shuttle, английский

2002-03-17, Serge Pod: Russia Unveils Space Shuttle for Tourists American businessmen and Russian engineers unveiled the first space shuttle designed exclusively for tourism on Thursday, paving the way for tourists on a budget to taste life in zero gravity. For under $100,000 would-be astronauts will be able to take an hour-long flight aboard the ``Cosmopolis XXI``, a snub-nosed rocket-powered shuttle about the size of a minivan. The trip includes only three minutes of weightlessness, but costs a mere sliver of the $20 million reportedly paid by space tourism pioneer Dennis Tito last year for a week on the International Space Station. ``We know the potential market is huge,`` said Eric Anderson, president of the U.S.-based Space Adventures company which organised Tito`s flight. ``We literally have people waiting to go who have already paid us, who have said /they/ want to be the first to fly.`` The shuttle, a joint project by Space Adventures and Russia`s Myasishchev Design Bureau, is due to start regular flights by 2004-05.…