Cosmopolis XXI was a late 2000s Russian concept

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

billed as a

space tourism Space tourism is human space travel for recreational purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital and lunar space tourism. During the period from 2001 to 2009, seven space tourists made eight s ...

vehicle, similar to

Mojave Aerospace Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV) is a company founded by Paul Allen and Burt Rutan to handle the commercial spinoffs from the Tier One project. It owns the intellectual property arising from Tier One, and it is in turn owned by Allen (the majori ...

's Tier One program. Designed and built by the Myasishchev Design Bureau, it would use the M-55X

launch aircraft Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the larger mother ship and then "drop ...

(derived from Myasishchev M-55), and the proposed C-21

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

or its successor the Explorer. It would be a TSTSO (Two-Stage to SubOrbit) launch platform. The Explorer

is a

suborbital A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital r ...

tourist

based on the C-21 design. The plane was being developed by Space Adventures with the Russian Federal Space Agency and was intended to carry 3 passengers. It is to be air-launched by carrier aircraft from a Space Adventures spaceport. Space Adventures abandoned the Explorer project in 2010 because "it got too expensive."Space Adventures returns to suborbital spaceflight
''NewSpace Journal'', 2010-05-28, accessed 2010-05-28. It is unclear if Russia continues its development.

References

*Space.co

February 22, 2006

External links

(SpaceAdventures) * ttp://www.nbcnews.com/id/11393569 New group to develop passenger spaceship(MSNBC)
''C-21 Spacecraft''
at Space Adventures Myasishchev aircraft Human spaceflight programs Space Adventures Space tourism {{space-stub