Space Tourist, Tour Agency Battle In Court Over Canceled Trip

November 22, 2008 7:14 a.m. EST

Alexandria, VA (AHN) - A Virginia court on Friday heard arguments in a lawsuit pitting a space tour agency and a Japanese millionaire seeking a $21 million refund for a canceled trip to space.

Lawyers of Daisuke Enomoto, who paid Virginia-based Space Adventures $21 million for a tour in orbit and the International Space Station (ISS) in 2006, told U.S. District Judge James Cacheris that he should be refunded the amount after the firm disqualified him from the tour and replaced him with another space tourist because he refused to invest in the company.

Space Adventures told the judge to junk the suit arguing that Enomoto's payments were non-refundable and his chronic kidney stone condition is a ground for delisting him from the roster of space tourists.

Enomoto saw his dream to walk in space wearing an anime character costume shattered when Space Adventures disqualified him after eight months of training and preparation at the Star City near Moscow, Russia in 2006. The slot he left was given to Anousheh Ansari, who became the world's first female space tourist.

Enomoto claimed Ansari invested in the company so she was favored to fly to the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule.