Russia Plans First Tourist Spacewalk After Musk Breaks Monopoly

(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s space agency plans to send a tourist will go on the first-ever commercial spacewalk as it braces for a loss of income after billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk broke its monopoly on human flights to the International Space Station.

Roscosmos unit RKK Energia signed a deal with Space Adventures Inc. to send two tourists to the ISS in 2023, with one of them to walk in open space, according to a statement Thursday.

The Russian announcement comes after Roscosmos lost its nine-year monopoly on ferrying crew to the International Space Station when Space Exploration Technologies Corp. sent two U.S. astronauts into orbit last month. Russia received over $3.4 billion since 2006 ferrying astronauts from NASA and its partners to the ISS.

The Russian space program will continue to earn revenue from NASA before SpaceX and Boeing Corp., which is also developing a rocket capable of reaching the ISS, can completely supplant it.

NASA said last month it bought an additional seat on a Russian Soyuz launch this fall as its commercial crew program is not offering routine flights yet. The spot cost is $90 million, Space.com reported, citing NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz.

Russia sent eight tourists into space, each paying millions for the trip, before NASA retired its fleet of space shuttles in 2011.

SpaceX is also competing with Roscosmos for space tourism business. In February, it signed a deal with Washington D.C.-based Space Adventures to fly up to four paying customers into orbit in its Crew Dragon rocket.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.