Around the Moon
Working with Rocket Space Corporation Energia, Space Adventures will add a second habitation module to the Soyuz TMA lunar complex, which will take those with (a lot) of extra cash around the moon.".. We have sold one of the two seats for this flight and anticipate that the launch will occur in 2015," Richard Garriott, vice chairman of Space Adventures, said in a statement.
In September, Boeing partnered with Space Adventures to sell commercial space flights on the Boeing Crew Space Transportation spacecraft. Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft can fit seven people, and is expected to be operational by 2015. Last year, Boeing received a $50 million grant from NASA to work on commercial transport of space station crew and the development of human spaceflight opportunities. Boeing was one of five companies that received a total of $50 million from the government space agency as part of the stimulus package.
Another company exploring commercial space flight is Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Earlier this week, one of Branson's spaceships completed a re-entry technique known as a "feather" configuration for the first time.
In April, meanwhile, commercial spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) unveiled plans for the Falcon Heavy, which SpaceX said will be the world's largest rocket.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385009,00.asp
