Spaceflight

Flight International online news 11:00GMT: Space Adventures, the US space travel firm, has confirmed that its next wealthy customer will be Hong Kong resident and Japanese-born entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto, or ‘Dice-K’ to his friends.

The company has so far organised spaceflights to the International Space Station for a number of other businessmen-adventurers including Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen.

Dice-K’s expedition is currently planned for October 2006 and has already begun cosmonaut training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Dice-K, a 34 year old executive vice president of Japanese IT firm LiveDoor, says, “I am proud to be the first private citizen from Japan to begin training for an orbital spaceflight.  I hope that by my interest in space exploration many others will be encouraged to learn more about the mysteries of the black sky.  For the past 30 years, I have dreamt of seeing our Mother Earth from space.”

Eric Anderson, president and chief executive, Space Adventures says “We congratulate Dice-K and wish him well in his training."