Roscosmos says he will send two tourists to the space station in 2023 - and one of them will go into space

After a decade's break in space tourism, Russian space company Roscosmos plans to send two paying tourists to the International Space Station in 2023 on a short flight from Soyuz spacecraft from the country. While heIf they are up there, one of the tourists will go out into space with an experienced Russian cosmonaut - a first for any citizen visiting the ISS.

To make tourists fly, Roscosmos works with the American company Space Adventures, which organizes space flights for wealthy clients. The company worked with Roscosmos before sending seven individuals to the International Space Station on eight separate Soyuz trips. The last tourist, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté, visited the ISS in September 2009.

A first for any citizen visiting the ISS

After that, Roscosmos mainly interrupted its efforts space tourism to help get NASA astronauts to and from the space station. When NASA's space shuttle retired in 2011, the Soyuz became thethe only way to get people to the ISS, so priority was given to NASA astronauts and international partners involved in the International Space Station program. NASA paid about $ 80 million per seat to board passengers on the Soyuz.

But now things are changing. SpaceX recently launched two NASA astronauts aboard the ISS on the company's new Crew Dragon capsule, and it plans to make regular passenger flights on the vehicle in the future. Meanwhile, Boeing is also developing a new crew capsule called the CST-100 Starliner which will eventually take NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. This means that NASA is no longer entirely dependent on the Russian Soyuz rocket, and the agency has therefore purchased fewer and fewer seats on the vehicle.

It now appears that Roscosmos space tourism effortsbe premounted again. Early last year, Roscosmos said it was working with Space Adventures to transport two tourists to the space station in 2021 . Today's announcement is separate from this agreement.

Of the handful of tourists who have gone into space, none have gone out into space before. Spacewalk is a fairly laborious process that requires extensive field training. There is no detail on the cost of a trip like this. It will be interesting to see what kind of training this person needs to do to prepare - and what they will do when they are in space. Space Adventures says that "accepted and secure applicants will need to undergo specialized training and additional simulations to prepare."

"A private citizen on a spacewalk would be another big step forward in private space flights," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Space Adventures, in a statement. "We appreciate the chance to celebrate two decades of orbital space tourism with our Russian partners by opening a very first experience. "

Update of June 25 , 1:50 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from Space Adventures.