Above: NASA's International Space Station
Space Adventures is a company dedicated to providing private citizens with opportunities for private space flight and space tourism - the only one of its kind to date. They have actually already sent private citizens to space - their clients having cumulatively spent over 2 months aboard the International Space Station.
Leading space entrepreneurs predict that commercial spaceships will be flying both cargo and humans into low-Earth orbit at low costs, even as soon as 2014.
"By 2020 you'll have seen private citizens circumnavigate the moon," - Eric Anderson of Space Adventures.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and say that by 2020 there will be serious plans to go to Mars with people," - Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies (spacecraft developers).
A trip around the moon aboard Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft will set you back around $100 million through Space Adventures. No bookings have yet been made for this service, but it is still on offer to potential customers.
Perhaps our generation will be the first to be lucky enough to have the ability to travel in space as a commercial customer - an incredibly exciting prospect.
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