With the realities of the post-Glasnost economy in Russia, the space industry was especially starved for cash. It was decided to allow Toyohi- ro Akiyama, a reporter for Japanese television company TBS, to fly in 1990 to Mir with the eighth crew and return a week later with the seventh crew, for a price of $28m. Akiyama gave a daily TV-broadcast from orbit and also performed scientific experiments for Russian and Japanese companies.
Whilst it is argued that John Glenn was essentially a tourist on his 1998 shuttle flight (STS-95), commercial space tourism did not resume for another ten years. MirCorp, a private venture by now in charge of the space station, began seeking potential space tourists to visit Mir in order to offset some of its maintenance costs. Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former JPL scientist, became their first candidate. When the decision to dismantle Mir was made, though, MirCorp opted to instead send Tito to the International Space Station.
On the 28th of April 2001 Tito became the second fee-paying space tourist when he visited the ISS for seven days. He was followed by South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. More individuals were interested in making the trip, such as boy band singer Lance Bass and scientist/entrepreneur Gregory Olsen. However, both trips were canceled — the former due to funding problems, the latter due to health concerns. After the Columbia disaster, space tourism on the Russian Soyuz program was temporarily put on hold, as Soyuz vehicles became the only available transport to the ISS.
The American company Space Adventures has an agreement with the Russian space agency Rosaviacosmos for a dedicated commercial flight to the ISS. The price for a trip on the Soyuz rocket is $20 million, with a preliminary launch date of 2005.