U.S./Russian manned commercial space venture

[tblaxland]

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0908/18almaz/

The previously top secret reusable reentry vehicle for the Soviet "Almaz" manned military space station will form the backbone of a major new U.S./Russian commercial venture to carry paying research crews on one week missions into Earth orbit by 2013.
[....]
EA (Excalibur Almaz Limited) intends to begin flight tests of the Almaz hardware by 2012 and to launch its first revenue flight as early as 2013.
[...]
He also says "the business plan closes" generating profits within a few years. His surveys have found research and science customers for space missions that are not tourist hops, but less demanding than ISS operations.

There are lots of other good details on the proposal in the article.

Some big names in there, I guess they mean business:

Art Dula founder and CEO of the venture[...]has over 30 years of experience as a Houston attorney specializing in commercial space, aerospace, export control and intellectual property law. He has also served as a Director and General Counsel for several aerospace companies, including Eagle Aerospace, Inc. and Space Services, Inc., which launched the first private U.S. space vehicle; and Spacehab, Inc., which built the Spacehab modules for the U.S. Space Shuttle. He also served as a Director and President of Space Commerce Corporation, the first US-Russian aerospace joint venture.
[...]
The EA management team includes some of NASA's most senior Apollo and space shuttle program managers, including George W.S. Abby and Jay Honeycutt, former directors of the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers.[...]His management team includes former U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao as Executive Vice President for Technical Operations.

 

[SiberianTiger]

They have a website: http://excaliburalmaz.com/SP1/index.php

Knowing the total mass of the TKS (21,620 kg at launch) it's doubtful they will have a great variety of launch vehicles to pick from to launch the craft on.

 

[ijuin]

For a mass like that, we pretty much have man-rated Atlas V / Delta IV, Ariane V, or Proton as launch vehicle choices.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Looking at the original article written back in 2005, it feels like they are going to use a Service Module different from one that was the part of the TKS. The launching mass will be much less and, therefore, affordable for lifting by Japanese rockets.

The downside I see here is that Japanese rockets are infamous for being obscenely costly and can only be launched when some specific fishing seasons aren't open in the waters Eastwards of Honshu.

Some sources tell that the company bought 8 of the VA capsules and are keeping them in stock. Here are some:

Hmm, they aren't looking very flightworthy to me. :hmm:

 

[liber]

More about Almaz.

http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Intro/Part2_26g.html

http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/craft/almaz.htm

 

[Urwumpe]

This shows more about their plans, it is not really a bad concept, but it looks a bit Frankenstein to me.

http://excaliburalmaz.com/SP1/spacecraft-module.php