Cosmopolis XXI

Cosmopolis XXI was a late 2000s Russian concept for a space tourism launch system, pitched as a rival to the Tier One programme of Mojave Aerospace. It was designed by the Myasishchev Design Bureau around a two stage to suborbit arrangement. The first stage would be the M-55X launch aircraft, a derivative of the high altitude Myasishchev M-55, and the second stage the proposed C-21 spaceplane or its successor, the Explorer. The Explorer was a three passenger suborbital tourist spaceplane being developed by Space Adventures with the Russian Federal Space Agency, to be air launched from a Space Adventures spaceport. Space Adventures abandoned the Explorer in 2010 because it had become too expensive, and it is unclear whether Russia continued the work.