Russia launches International Space Station HOLIDAYS – but it will cost each guest £70m

Tourists could potentially venture out of the ISS and carry out their very own spacewalk. 

But would-be astronauts will need deep pockets as well as a head for heights as the dream voyage carries an astronomical £70 million price-tag. 

Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russian space company Energia, said: “We are discussing the possibility of sending tourists on spacewalks.

“Market analysts have confirmed this: wealthy people are ready to pay money for this.”

He said the cost of such a trip could be around £70 million, but “possibly less for the first tourist”.

Mr Solntsev said the tourists would be able to “go out on a spacewalk and make a film or a video clip”.

Energia, which was behind the launch of the first man in space Yuri Gagarin in 1961, is building a new module dubbed NEM-2 to transport tourists to the ISS.

Mr Solntsev said the NEM-2, the name of which is still to be confirmed, will accommodate four to six people.

The module will be fitted with “comfortable” cabins, two toilets and internet access, and the company hopes to launch it next year.

He said: “Basically it will be comfortable, as much as that is possible in space.”

Five to six tourists a year will be able to take a space trip lasting up to 10 days with the holidays expected to launch in 2019. 

Space tourism is a developing sector currently dominated by Western companies, such as the US-based Virgin Galactic, which unveiled its commercial SpaceShipTwo in 2016.

Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari became the first female space tourist in 2006 and Russia sent Canadian founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, to the International Space Centre for two weeks in 2009.