wrote in message
oups.com...
This is just an idea. I was thinking it unfair that the rich should buy
a TAX PAYER sub'd ticket to space, (Remember it was the U.S. that
bailed out the Russian Program, (and paid for the station dev.)).

What the US has paid for, the US has gotten. The Russians have been selling
the "third seat" on Soyuz missions for quite some time now. In fact, I
believe the practice predates the shuttle/Mir program, which is when the US
started sending money to Russia:

http://www.astronautix.com/flights/mireo7.htm

Search the above page for "journalist".

This page says the first of the Shuttle/Mir missions was in 1994 when NASA
let a Russian cosmonaut ride on the shuttle during STS-60.

If the US didn't like Russia selling that third seat, it should have been in
the Shuttle/Mir and ISS agreements.

I
think maybe a lotto, for rides to the station, (World wide of course).
If the Russians need more funds to keep the taxi running, (We should
chip in a few more bucks, (at least till the Dragon is opp., (LOL).


What do you think! We have all got the right to go! We paid for it!!
Have a drawing once a year or so!!

I think you're silly to deny the Russians their capitalistic venture of
selling seats on Soyuz. You can take comfort in the fact that the US
Government still has complete socialistic control of its shuttle seats
(they're historically only given away to foreign dignitaries, US
politicians, US contractors, and the like).

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)