Moscow – Russia is planning to send paying tourists on the InternationalSpace Station out on spacewalks for the first time, an official from thecountry’s space industry said Thursday.

“We are discussing the possibility of sending tourists on spacewalks,”Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russian space company Energia, told Russiantabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“Market analysts have confirmed this: wealthy people are ready to pay moneyfor this,” Solntsev told the paper.

He said the cost of such a trip could be around $100 million (80 millioneuros), “possibly less for the first tourist”.

The tourists will be able to “go out on a spacewalk and make a film, (or) avideo clip”.

Energia, which was behind the launch of the first man in space Yuri Gagarinin 1961, is currently building a new module dubbed NEM-2 to transporttourists to the International Space Station (ISS).

Solntsev said the NEM-2, the name of which is still to be confirmed, willaccommodate four to six people. It will be fitted with “comfortable”cabins, two toilets and internet access.

“It should be launched in 2019,” he said.

“Basically it will be comfortable, as much as that is possible in space,”the space official was quoted as saying.

He added that American aircraft manufacturer Boeing was interested inbecoming a partner in the project.

Five to six tourists a year will be able to take a space trip lasting up to10 days, Solntsev said.

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

Russia sent Canadian founder of the Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, intospace in 2009. The billionaire spent two weeks on the ISS.

Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari became the first female spacetourist in 2006. – AFP