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[i] Late last year we suddenly learned a lot more about what had been going on when Harald McPike filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Zero-Gravity Holdings, the renamed Space Adventures. McPike, it turns out, was the first customer for the circumlunar flight, the one who signed up in 2011 to pay $150 million for the trip. Those who follow spaceflight news closely, particularly any news about space tourism, will probably respond to seeing McPike's name by scratching their head in puzzlement. He is not somebody who was well known, or even known at all, in any of the space tourism discussions. He has not sponsored any space events or appeared as an investor. He is not famous. But, apparently, he is very, very rich. McPike is, according to a [URL=https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/virginia/vaedce/1:2017cv00562/365547/34/]district court document[/URL], "a private investor and adventurer who hails from Austria, but currently resides in the Bahamas. In the past, plaintiff has undertaken expeditions to the North and South Poles and has scaled many notable mountain peaks including Mt. Kilimanjaro. He now wishes to add space travel to his long list of adventures." McPike was not one of the eight people who booked tickets aboard a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS. But he certainly had ambition, wanting to fly around the Moon, and he had the bank account necessary to buy a ticket...[/i]
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