Spacewalks for Sale

July 21, 2006 -- -- Hey! You with the extra change! Want a chance to walk in space? It'll only cost you, say, $15 million! Plus airfare, of course.

Space Adventures Ltd., the Virginia-based firm that brokered the privately paid for space flights of Dennis Tito and two other multimillionaires, today announced that it's expanding its offerings. For $20 million, Space Adventures will get you a ride to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. For an extra $15 million, you can now go on a 90-minute spacewalk.

Just imagine. You climb into a Russian-made Orlan spacesuit, slowly depressurize the airlock, open the hatch, and then you and a cosmonaut partner float out into the void. For 90 minutes (about $10 million an hour) there is nothing between you and infinity but the gold-tinted visor of your suit. Tethers are included so you don't float away.

Think it over. You don't have to answer right away.

"It's one step in a long walk to make space access affordable," said Stacey Tearne of Space Adventures. The firm, she said, has made arrangements with Russia's Federal Space Agency to train potential clients for spacewalks, and put them through physical and psychological testing to make sure they would come through the experience in one piece. "We're discussing it with our clients."

So far, there are no publicly announced takers. A Japanese entrepreneur, Daisuke Entomo, is preparing for a flight that is currently expected to take place in September. Tearne said he might have been interested in a spacewalk, but there was not enough time left for the additional training and testing needed.

"I think someone who does this will be getting their money's worth," said Thomas D. Jones, a NASA astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions and made three spacewalks in 2001. "You want to be on a promontory of the space station where the view is the best. Actually, from the Pirs docking compartment" -- the Russian airlock, one of two on the station -- "you have a great view out to the side and down at Earth," Jones said. "And by moving just a few tens of feet, you can probably get a great view out toward open space, too."