Jilted Space Tourist Sues for $21 Million
Daisuke Enomoto , a 37-year-old Japanese businessman, thought he had booked the vacation of a lifetime, a 10-day visit to the International Space Station. According to Reuters, Enomoto paid $21 million to Virginia-based Space Adventures to make the arrangements, completed his training, and was all set to blast off in a Russian Soyuz capsule.
Then he was bumped from the mission due to health reasons. Space Adventures maintains that they don't owe him a refund because the cause of his failure to fly was a medical disqualification.
Enomoto called foul, and is now in court claiming that Space Adventures was aware of his kidney stones all along. He claims that he had been cleared by the Russian Government Medical Commission and other space station partners in the weeks and months prior to his sudden disqualification, and that no changes in his health had occurred.
Wealthy businesswoman Anousheh Ansari took his place in the 2006 flight. The lawsuit claims Space Adventures booted Enomoto to acquire a "separate investment" in Space Adventures from Ansari.