Starting in October, adventure travel company Zegrahm Space Voyages will bring groups of 10 civilian participants to the Center for an exclusive training program using the same simulators, equipment, and supervised by the same engineers that instruct actual Cosmonauts and Astronauts.

This is the world's only space training program for civilians. During the week-long expedition, adventurers experience real weightlessness on a parabolic flight aboard a specially designed aircraft; take a spin in a giant Centrifuge where g-loads of spacecraft launch and reentry are simulated; and dive in the massive Neutral Buoyancy Tank for extravehicular activity training.

They will try on an ORLAN-M spacesuit, simulate the docking of a Soyuz-TM spacecraft, navigate a spacecraft inside a space planetarium, and enjoy lectures and briefings from 15 renown space engineers and specialists.

The Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, just outside Moscow, was a top-secret facility during the Cold War's Space Race. Named for the first human in space Yuri Gagarin, the GCTC is an active facility today; inside its buildings are some of the world's most sophisticated space training equipment.

The GCTC has been the site for training of all Russian Cosmonauts, as well as Astronaut teams from 17 different countries. Today, crews preparing for Soyuz-TM flights and the International Space Station are training there. Participants may have the opportunity to meet them.

Five group departures are offered exclusively by Zegrahm Space Voyages, a division of 10-year-old adventure travel firm Zegrahm Expeditions. Following the October 1999 expedition, there will be once-a-month departures from March through June 2000.

The training program is for anyone interested in space exploration; men and women participants can select their individual exertion level on simulators. Participants should be in reasonably good health.

The 7-day training program is priced at US$14,950 per person. It includes the training program, five-star hotel accommodations and meals in Moscow, a visit to the mission control center in nearby Korolev, personalized flight suit, video and training certificate. There will also be time available to explore the history, art and culture of Moscow.

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