A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft takes off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020. - NASA astronauts Hurley and Bob Behnken are set to depart for an extended stay at the International Space Station on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)
Cover A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft takes off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020. (Image: Mandel Ngan/AFP)

Are you ready for space tourism?

Russia's Energia space corporation announced on Thursday that it will take the first tourist on a space walk in 2023, under the terms of a new contract with a US partner.

Energia has inked a contract with Space Adventures, which promises to take two space tourists to the International Space Station that year.

"We plan that one of the participants of the expedition will do a spacewalk from the Russian segment, together with a professional Russian cosmonaut," said Energia, which is part of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.

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Above The Virgin Galactic VSS Unity, seen during a test flight over the Mojave desert in California on May 29, 2018. (Image: Virgin Galactic/AFP)
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020. - NASA astronauts Hurley and Bob Behnken are set to depart for an extended stay at the International Space Station on the SpaceX Demo-2 mission. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
Above A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon spacecraft lifts off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30, 2020. (Image: Gregg Newton/AFP)

On its website, Space Adventures already advertises the spacewalk as a "rare and exhilarating experience," available only through the Russian programme.

"If you choose to fly to space on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, you have the opportunity to... conduct a spacewalk, accompanied by a professional cosmonaut," it says.

The company together with the Russian agency previously took eight tourists to the ISS between 2001 and 2009.
 

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