MirCorp, the company formed by RSC Energia and a consortium of American businessmen, is set to take its first paying space tourist to the Mir Space Station, according to this BBC News article. MirCorp will be holding a live press conference about the mission on Monday, June 19, at their website at http://www.mirstation.com/.

Energiya, a space technology company, and Gold & Appel, a holdings firm, recently established a joint venture, MirCorp, whose purpose is to commercialise the orbiting space station, Mir.

After many months of 'on-again, off-again' rumours that the MIR space station could be maintained in orbit as a private business facility if some tens of millions of dollars of new investment could be raised, it appears that this is about to happen.

Space.com runs with an article titled, "Wanna Be A Space Tourist?" at:

Dole Food Products Inc, the world's largest fresh fruit company, is offering tickets for a sub-orbital space flight to winners of a sweep-stake it is organising.

The 2nd International Symposium on Space Tourism took place in Bremen from April 21-23, organised by Professor Uwe Apel of Bremen Technical University as Chair of the Program Committee, and Hartmut Mueller of Space Tours Gmbh as Chair of the Host Committee. Among the 26 papers presented, several are destined to become recognised as 'classic' papers in the field, establishing an important new element of accepted wisdom among professionals in the field, or creating what will be seen as a milestone in the future.

Over the past few weeks, two self-made billionaire businessmen have established companies with the stated objective of playing roles in the commercial space tourism industry that is becoming increasingly widely recognised as the true future of space activities.