The sight of the Earth seen from orbit is the most compelling reason why tourists want go into space.

Space tourism opportunities are still limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport. The price for a flight brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft is now US$30 million (RM105 million). Flights are fully booked until 2009.

Among the primary attractions of space tourism are the uniqueness of the experience, the thrill and awe of looking at Earth from space (described by astronauts as extremely intense and mind boggling), the experience's notion as an exclusive status symbol, and various advantages of weightlessness.

The following is the list of flown space tourists all of whom flew to and from the International Space Station on the Soyuz spacecraft:

1. Dennis Tito (American): April 28 May 6, 2001

2. Mark Shuttleworth (South African/British): April 25 May 5, 2002

3. Gregory Olsen (American): Oct 1 11, 2005

4. Anousheh Ansari (Iranian/American): Sept 18 29, 2006

5. Charles Simonyi (Hungarian /American): April 7 21, 2007

6. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (Malaysian): Oct 10 21, 2007

So now everybody is wandering, who will be the next lucky Malaysian, fully sponsored by Malaysian taxpayers, to travel to ISS after 2009 because all flights has already been fully booked till then. Dr Faiz Khaleed?