RoscosmosTV documentary: Dreams Come True

There are seven of them on Earth. Only seven lucky earthlings who managed to get a space journey to the orbit. In September 2009 a new crew lifted off to the International Space Station. Russian citizen Maksim Surayev - the expedition's commander, American subject Jeffrey Williams - the flight engineer, and Canadian billionaire, the founder of the circus empire Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberte. Mr. Laliberte as well as the rest of our main characters - Dennis Tito (USA), Mark Shuttleworth (RSA), Gregory Olsen (USA), Anousheh Ansari (USA), Charles Simonyi (USA) and Richard Garriott (USA) had to spend a tidy sum that is 20 to 40 million dollars to be granted an opportunity to look at Earth through the window of the ISS.

Regardless all the differences of occupations and interests these seven people have one common trait - they are completely self-made. Money they managed to earn is not even a matter in this case since it is all about the main purpose of their persistent work. It was dedicated to space. Throughout entire conscious life they were striving for its heights.

These people are usually dubbed by the public as space tourists as a half a week long stay in the orbit at their own expense is thought to be merely an orbital tour. Whilst in the logbooks they are mentioned as spaceflight participants and cosmonauts involved in researches. The documentary's characters still prefer to identify themselves as cosmonauts or astronauts and do take offence when being compared to nothing but an expensive and useless on-board cargo. For instance, our documentary's main character Guy Laliberte carried out a humanitarian rescue mission of Earth's water supplies in the orbit.

Space tourism as a phenomenon belongs to the 21st century (the first spaceflight took place in 2001). The main reason of space tours' issue to the International Space Station was the lack of financial resources intended for space exploration in the Russian treasury. Richard Garriott, the sixth space tourist, said: "Certainly, 20 million dollars would hardly be enough to construct a spacecraft, although I reasonably contributed to Russian space industry's staff salaries funding at hard times". All six space tourists lifted off on board the Russian Soyuz spacecrafts and worked in the ISS Russian segment.

A rather juicy scandal burst out around the first tourist spaceflight. NASA strongly objected such a space voyage. Tourist number one Dennis Tito tells that he was even concerned about his personal safety. Supposedly, some American promised to crash down millionaire's bones unless the latter had not abandoned his insane venture. Threat turned out to be quite serious hence Talgat Musabaev and Yuri Baturin, commander and flight engineer who were meant to accompany the space tourist were given an order to call on a strike in Houston and draw world medias' attention. NASA and ESA eventually surrendered. On the 28th of April 2001 Tito made it for the orbit. The unfolding events and nearly occurred Dennis Tito's perish on board the ISS are the subjects of that flight direct participants' reminiscences.

Professionals and amateurs in space. What is the difference between them? Do they somehow compete? As many claim it is because of passengers, no matter how nice they could be, that cosmonauts' detachment members cannot work properly. Vacancies capacity in a spacecraft's cockpit and on board the ISS is limited. Dennis Tito happened to shut down involuntarily the whole area of Russian space exploration - a so called female cosmonautics. The tourist replaced Nadezhda Kuzhelnaya who was training to join the main crew of Soyuz TM-32.

All in all, space tourists' flights end up unmythicising the prejudice of space's hostility towards common earthlings and the wide spread viewpoint that only professionals are able to inhabit the orbital residence. Preflight trainings of tourists differ from those of cosmonauts by their complexity and duration. Medics are quite indulgent to space voyagers' age and health condition. You can make it for the orbit even suffering from a light form of Parkinson's disease. At once there is a strict moral code which would not let even most strikingly healthy people lift off into space.

Once the first tourist's spaceflight was accomplished, the space international community defined a specific "code" according to which a scoundrel would not under any circumstances be allowed to fly up the sky no matter how much fortune he would promise. One will not select a person who belonged to some shady organizations (even in his/her adolescence), whose name was, groundlessly even, associated with any financial scandals. That is to say that humankind must be entirely assured that the space tourist paid his hard and fairly earned money.

Nevertheless, a spaceflight must be apparently a nice investment. Otherwise there would never appear a jamming queue willing to pay an arm and a leg on the space checkout counters. Recently Simonyi who had already flown to the orbit happened to forestall Australian millionaire Halleck (Garriott's backup) by making his 35 million USD offer instead of 30 million bucks provided by the latter. And this is how he lifted off for the second time.

After 2012 the space agencies of the USA, Europe and Russia will proceed to the proper space tourism - suborbital flights, if more precisely. They will be arranged as the tours with tourists and guides involved. For example, in Russia this type of spaceflights will be carried out by a boost-glide aircraft which will have been constructed on the Myasishchev's Mechanical Engineering Plant (jointly with NPO Molniya). In the meantime, the USA is already counting the profit obtained by several rocket gliders' flights.

Anousheh Ansari wrote in her space diary - "I was looking through the window at Earth in tears. All countries' presidents before governing their nations must surely cast a glance at our home world out of space. Then they will take into account the planet's interests in the first place and not until then the national ones".

Viewers will be able to watch trainings in the Star City and Houston, visit spacecrafts' launching sites with the tourists on board, get acquainted with their orbital routine.

Starring cosmonauts Talgat Musabaev, Yuri Baturin, Fiodor Yurchikhin, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov, space tourists Guy Laliberte, Richard Garriott, Charles Simonyi.