Space walks for US $15 million

Space Adventures, a company based in Vienna, Virginia, that has sent three very wealthy men to orbit the earth on the International Space Station, was scheduled to announce yesterday that future customers will be able to take an hour-and-a-half trip outside the station as well.
The price is just US $15 million, on top of the US $20 million for the flight itself. For people who can afford US $20 million for a 10-day vacation, the extra US $15 million might seem like little more than over tipping.

"It's the next logical step and one of the premier experiences of spaceflight," said Eric Anderson, the travel agency's president and chief executive officer. "We've had several potential clients, and previous clients express an interest in doing a spacewalk. It was really only a matter of time."
In 2001, Space Adventures arranged for Dennis Tito, a wealthy California investor, to become the first space tourist. Tito trained in Russia and accompanied two cosmonauts to the space station on a 10-day mission to exchange one Soyuz capsule, the Russian spacecraft that serve as life boats, for another.

Aleksey Krasnov, director of the Russian space agency, said in a statement that space tourists "could potentially perform an EVA [extra-vehicular activity]" with a month's training, and if they had the proper "physical and psychological capabilities."
Fewer than 450 people have traveled to space, and the club of spacewalkers is even more exclusive. Just 151 people have stepped outside the relative safety of their craft to greet the void with only a visor to separate life and death.