All individuals embarking on a Soyuz spaceflight to the ISS have to be medically certified for full cosmonaut training by passing Space Adventures’ Orbital Flight Qualification Program.
All cosmonaut candidates will train at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in Star City, about 90 minutes from Moscow, Russia. Although most of the training has to be completed at the Gagarin Center, a portion of it can be conducted in an offsite location that is the most convenient for the trainee. Training at Star City provides orbital clients with all the skills needed to become fully trained cosmonauts. This rigorous training program includes some of the following basic training modules: Soyuz TMA flight training, zero gravity training, ISS systems training, full medical flight screening, physical training and survival training. Although spaceflight is a highlight of the Orbital Flight program, training itself constitutes quite a rewarding experience. As Mark Shuttleworth, the first African in space noted, “For me the actual experience was broader and richer than I thought it would be. Looking back with hindsite, the time that I spent in Star City was as much a part of the value of the experience, as the flight itself. I thoroughly enjoyed the training, to me it was an opportunity to taste the real history of spaceflight; working in Star City with some extraordinary Russians who have been part of
manned spaceflight from the very, very beginning, and also to taste a bit of the future, working with the cosmonauts and the astronauts who are laying the foundations for the future of manned spaceflight.”
You will fly to space aboard the most reliable, oft-flown, human-rated spacecraft in the history of spaceflight: the Soyuz TMA (Russian for “Union”). TMA is the latest model of Soyuz, built with dozens of improvements over its predecessors, the Soyuz-TM and Soyuz-T, which were the workhorses of the Soviet and then Russian space program throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Your launch vehicle will be the Soyuz-FG, the latest in a line of vehicles that have flown over 1600 times, far more than any other human-rated launch vehicle.
You will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the site of thousands of space launches over the last 45 years. Under the force of nearly one million pounds of thrust, your launch vehicle will enable your spacecraft to reach orbit in less than nine minutes. You will be traveling nearly 18,000 miles per hour, and you will circle the Earth every 90 minutes.
After about 30 hours aboard the Soyuz spacecraft, you and your crew will rendezvous with the massive International Space Station (ISS) - a three-hundred ton living and working facility that serves as mankind’s only orbital outpost today. The third brightest object in the sky at night, ISS construction began in 1998 and today the station is “core complete.” You will spend the next several days enjoying the ISS by living, working, relaxing, sleeping, and carrying out your specialized mission program.
As your stay on the ISS draws to a close, you and your crew will undock from the station, wave goodbye to the long-duration crew and head for home. No more than a few hours later, you will be back on Earth, not far from where you launched - on the desert outside of Baikonur. By now, you will have orbited the Earth over 120 times, traveled millions of miles, and experienced what less than 500 people have experienced in the history of humanity - the wonders of spaceflight.
At this point, your spaceflight experience will conclude, but it will stay with you forever. For the rest of your life you will remain a cosmonaut, and you will be one of those exceptional individuals who left the Earth behind and dared to explore the heavens.
Space Adventures has several unique programs which can provide you with an understanding of what an orbital experience would be like. These programs also constitute exciting and enjoyable space experiences. If you are seriously considering your own orbital spaceflight, we suggest that you contact Space Adventures today, so that we can tailor a program for you.
