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Japanese entrepreneur to be next private astronaut SPACE ADVENTURES NEWS RELEASE Posted: November 3, 2005 Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today that Hong Kong resident and Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto (Dice-K) will be the next private space explorer candidate. The company which organized the spaceflights to the International Space Station for the world's first private explorers Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen, disclosed that Dice-K's expedition is currently planned for October 2006. In conjunction with the Federal Space Agency and the Rocket Space Corporation Energia, Space Adventures continues its commitment to opening the final frontier for private citizens. Dice-K has already begun cosmonaut training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Dice-K, founder of DICE-K.com commented, "I am proud to be the first private citizen from Japan to begin training for an orbital spaceflight. I hope that by my interest in space exploration many others will be encouraged to learn more about the mysteries of the black sky. For the past 30 years, I have dreamt of seeing our Mother Earth from space." "We are excited to announce that Dice-K will be the next private space explorer to visit the International Space Station," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO, Space Adventures. "It will be another proud moment at his launch, not only for Space Adventures, but for Japan as a country. We encourage people from all around the world to explore the final frontier. We congratulate Dice-K and wish him well in his training." Dice-K is a 34 year-old, Japanese national that has been living and working in the Pacific Rim (USA, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan) for the last 15 years. He was the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategic Officer and member of the Board of Livedoor, a publicly traded TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange:4753) company in the IT industry. During his tenure with Livedoor, the company experienced exponential growth with the market capitalization growing from $150 million (USD), when Dice-K joined to approximately $1.5 billion (USD). The current market capitalization of Livedoor is approximately $5 billion (USD). Currently, he is an independent investor providing investment and strategic business advisory services for select companies such as Net Village OSE (Osaka Stock Exchange:2323) company in mobile contents. Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Arlington, Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such as Zero-Gravity and MiG flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company's advisory board comprises Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker and Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott. |
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