The MirCorp company, Russia's Energia space enterprise, and the Russian aviation and space agency have signed an agreement to discuss the proposed launching of an orbitial commercial Mini-Station 1.
Despite the signing, there are serious doubts as to whether funding will materialise to see the project launched. The plan envisages building a craft able to support 20-day missions with three crew, including potential space tourists, willing to pay $20 million.
Energia, which will conduct the feasibility study, would have to raise $40 million to develop the Mini-Station 1, which could be launched in 2004 and be supported by Soyuz and Progress crew and logistics spacecraft.
The project appears to be purely speculative at this stage, with the Russian space agency being dismissive of the scheme and attempting to quell the hype promoted by MirCorp, which is 60% owned by Energia.
One of the goals of the Mini-Station 1 project will be to generate funds which "could help Russia support its responsibilities to the International Space Station [ISS]", Energia says.
The Soyuz TM spacecraft used to carry crew to the Mini-Station for the two week commercial mission would then fly to the ISS, supplying it with a fresh crew return craft, and return to Earth from the ISS in the older Soyuz TM.
The Mini-Station is planned to accommodate space users unable to gain access to the ISS, such as tourists, commercial scientists and film makers, says MirCorp.
Although Jeffrey Manber, the president of the Amsterdam-based MirCorp, says the organisation had reached an "historic agreement for design, development, launch and operation of the world's first private space station", the Mini-Station 1 is still just a paper project.
Source: Flight International
