Space Adventures
Announces Exclusive Marketing Agreement
with Travel Agency, JTB Corp.
Tokyo
- August 18, 2005 -- Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space
experiences company, announced today a partnership with Tokyo-based travel
agency, JTB Corp., to exclusively market Space Adventures' diverse range
of experiences in Japan. The company, which organized spaceflights for
the world's first private space explorers, American businessman Dennis
Tito and the 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth, disclosed the
details of the agreement during a press conference.
"We have received thousands of requests from around the world, many from
Japan, for more information on opportunities available today for space
tourism," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "Space
Adventures pioneered commercial space travel and we look forward to working
closely with JTB in providing accessibility of our programs to the Japanese
people."
JTB will market all of Space Adventures' unique programming including
the recently announced mission to the moon, called DSE-Alpha. This spaceflight
is the first in a series of lunar missions to be featured in Space Adventures'
Deep Space Expeditions program. DSE-Alpha will utilize the robust Russian
Soyuz spacecraft, piloted by a cosmonaut, and could launch as early as
2008. Two commercial seats are available priced at $100,000,000 (USD)
each.
Currently, Gregory Olsen, Ph.D., of New Jersey, is finishing his orbital
spaceflight preparations at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
for a 10-day visit to the International Space Station. His launch date
is scheduled for October 1, 2005. The price of this mission is $20,000,000
(USD).
Space Adventures' suborbital program, currently in development, will consist
of a four-day training period and a 90-minute spaceflight. As each vehicle
reaches their maximum altitude, the rocket engines will shutdown and the
passengers will experience up to five minutes of continuous weightlessness.
The company is the marketing and experiences operation partner for several
of the leading space vehicle manufacturing companies and is the first
company to accept deposits from suborbital spaceflight clients, currently
totaling over $2,000,000 (USD). Space Adventures is anticipating suborbital
spaceflights to commence in the 2007-08 timeframe and the current price
for the program is $102,000 (USD).J
TB
Corp. JTB, established in April 1912, has 16,000 employees worldwide with
800 retail stores in Japan, 62 international offices and 162 subsidiary
companies. This private company's gross sales are estimated at $12,000,000,000
(USD) annually. JTB's president is Takashi Sasaki and their main office
is located in Tokyo. For more information, please visit www.jtb.co.jp.
Space
Adventures, Ltd. Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully
launched private space explorers to space, is headquartered in Arlington,
Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers
a variety of programs such as Zero-Gravity and MiG flights, cosmonaut
training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future
suborbital spacecrafts. The company's advisory board comprises Apollo
11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert (Hoot)
Gibson, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot,
Charles Walker and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott. For more information,
please visit www.spaceadventures.com or www.spaceadventures.jp.
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