Tokyo - A former executive of a troubled Japanese Internet start-up company has been selected to become the nation's first space tourist, according to a United States company organising private space trips.
Daisuke Enomoto has signed the final contract to fly on a modified Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-9 en route to the International Space Station for the trip later this year, Space Adventures from Virginia said in a statement released on Monday on its website.
Enomoto has also received approval from the Russian space agency to start cosmonaut training to prepare for the September trip, the company said.
Kyodo News agency identified Enomoto, 34, as former executive of Livedoor.
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The company's former president and four other executives were arrested last month for on fraud charges, but Enomoto left the company prior to the scandal.
The trip will cost him $20-million (R125-million), Kyodo said.
Space Adventures has a partnership with the Russian Federal Space Agency, and previously sent American businessman Dennis Tito, scientist Gregory Olsen and South African Mark Shuttleworth on Soyuz for stays on the space station.
Enomoto will be the fourth, the company said. - Sapa-AP
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