<P> The US Federal Aviation Administration awards the title of "Commercial Astronaut" to trained crew members of privately funded spacecraft . The only people currently holding this title are Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, the pilots of SpaceShipOne . </P> <P> The Soviet space program was aggressive in broadening the pool of cosmonauts . The Soviet Intercosmos program included cosmonauts selected from Warsaw Pact member countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania) and later from allies of the USSR (Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam) and non-aligned countries (India, Syria, Afghanistan). Most of these cosmonauts received full training for their missions and were treated as equals, but were generally given shorter flights than Soviet cosmonauts . The European Space Agency (ESA) took advantage of the program as well . </P> <P> The US space shuttle program included payload specialist positions which were usually filled by representatives of companies or institutions managing a specific payload on that mission . These payload specialists did not receive the same training as professional NASA astronauts and were not employed by NASA . In 1983, Ulf Merbold from ESA and Byron Lichtenberg from MIT (engineer and Air Force fighter pilot) were the first payload specialists to fly on the Space Shuttle, on mission STS - 9 . </P> <P> In 1984, Charles D. Walker became the first non-government astronaut to fly, with his employer McDonnell Douglas paying $40,000 for his flight . NASA was also eager to prove its capability to Congressional sponsors . During the 1970s, Shuttle prime contractor Rockwell International studied a $200--300 million removable cabin that could fit into the Shuttle's cargo bay . The cabin could carry up to 74 passengers into orbit for up to three days . Space Habitation Design Associates proposed, in 1983, a cabin for 72 passengers in the bay . Passengers were located in six sections, each with windows and its own loading ramp, and with seats in different configurations for launch and landing . Another proposal was based on the Spacelab habitation modules, which provided 32 seats in the payload bay in addition to those in the cockpit area . A 1985 presentation to the National Space Society stated that although flying tourists in the cabin would cost $1 to 1.5 million per passenger without government subsidy, within 15 years 30,000 people a year would pay $25,000 each to fly in space on new spacecraft . The presentation also forecast flights to lunar orbit within 30 years and visits to the lunar surface within 50 years . </P>

Do u think space travel for common citizens is a near future possibility