Space tourist’s lawsuit moves forward
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
March 9, 2009
A Virginia judge has given the go-ahead to a $21 million lawsuit filed by a high-flying Japanese businessman who claims a local company unfairly clipped his wings and kept him from traveling in space.
Daisuke Enomoto says Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures took his millions and promised him a trip to outer space — compliments of the Russian space agency — without ever having permission from Russian officials to do so.
His suit was approved by U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris, who turned aside Space Adventures’ motion to dismiss in a memorandum opinion published late Friday.
Enomoto, an Internet mogul, had hoped to become the world’s fourth space tourist and the first tourist to take a walk outside the Russian space station. He said he handed over $21 million to Space Adventures to secure the flight and the space walk. But according to his lawsuit, Space Adventures didn’t have Russia’s permission for either.
Just a few weeks before takeoff, a Russian doctor determined that Enomoto’s kidney stones were too large for him to risk a flight. Enomoto’s lawsuit suggests the kidney stones were a red herring and that, in fact, Space Adventures had long planned to give his flight opportunity to his eventual replacement, Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari.
Cacheris’ case may shed some new light on the still-nascent commercial space industry. Since the early 1980s, dozens of companies such as Space Adventures have emerged, offering everything from “zero G” flights and satellite launches to space station stays and millions in prizes for rocket designs.
Company officials couldn’t be reached for comment. But Space Adventures has said that Enomoto’s lawsuit is frivolous, asserting he never denied that he had kidney stones and that he entered into his nonrefundable contract with open eyes.
A trial date is pending.
