For as little as $100 million dollars, you too can fly around the moon in a chartered Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Space Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, VA, has contracts currently pending for these private lunar circumnavigation flights. If the deal progresses it will be the first private flight of it's kind. Two passengers and a pilot will fly a 'boomerang pattern', or free return trajectory, around the moon in a slightly modified Soyuz craft. According to Space Adventures the Soyuz craft was originally designed to fly around the moon. They believe that the craft does not really need any modifications to successfully make the flight. However, the Space Adventures people want to make the windows a little larger and improve the communications system.

It seems as though crazy tourism adventures may really have a future, and offer a possible hope for driving near earth space travel in the near future. It's amazing what rich people will spend their money on. I mean, I was excited about buying n electric baseboard heater yesterday (because I refuse to [sic, cannot] pay for heating oil anymore).

The Russians and Chinese will cooperate on missions to send robots to the moon. However the Russians will be holding back some 'state secrets' from the Chinese in the process. That could put a damper on project efforts, huh?

After returning from her trip on the Russian Soyuz rocket, Anousheh Ansari said that the world needs more private space investment. Actually, she said that the government and private companies need to work together to 'make great leaps in space exploration'. I was with her up until that cooperation jazz. Now is hardly the political climate for such non-sense.