Space Adventures Announces the Identity of Back-up Crew Member

Australian entrepreneur and investment wealth strategist selected

Today, Space Adventures, Ltd., the worlds leading space experiences company, announced that Nik Halik of Australia has been chosen to train as the back-up crew member alongside our orbital spaceflight candidate, famed game developer and son of former NASA astronaut, Richard Garriott, who is currently planning a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in October.

Through his participation as a back-up crew member, Nik will experience first-hand how our clients train for spaceflight and he, himself, will be certified as a fully-trained cosmonaut and will be named to an official space mission crew, a distinction that less than 1,000 people have ever had, said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures.

I am thrilled to be chosen as Richards back-up. I have dreamed of flying to space ever since I was a young boy. I watched recordings of Neil Armstrongs first steps on the moons surface and I vowed to follow, said Nik Halik. The space station will be my first stop, with my eyes focused on the moon.

Not only is Nik a successful entrepreneur, but he is also an avid adventurer. Among his various expeditions, he was one the first Australians to dive down five miles and land on the bow of the Titanic and he will be the first civilian from Australia to travel to space, added Mr. Anderson.

Nik and I have similar exploratory backgrounds and well have many stories to share during our time together in Star City. I look forward to train with him because not only is it meant to prepare myself for flight, but also to prepare Nik for his future flight. I definitely will be on-hand for his eventual launch to space, said Mr. Garriott.

The price of the program is $3,000,000 (USD) which includes the required spaceflight training costs, along with accommodations in Star City and other training locations.

About Nik Halik:

Nik Halik, born in Australia to Greek immigrant parents, is the CEO and founder of several companies including Financial Freedom Institute and Money Masters. As an international wealth strategist, he has conducted over 100 ‘Mind and Wealth Prosperity’ conferences globally and mentored investors in maximizing their wealth accumulation. His latest book that will be published and globally released in March 2008, “The Thrillionaire”, is an autobiography that also provides astute investment strategies. Mr. Halik is also an adventurer. He has lead expeditions to Antarctica, Africa and the Amazon with his adventure company, ADVENTURE ODYSSEY. Mr. Halik is a mountaineer, having summited several of the highest peaks in the world with an Everest climb planned for 2009. Nik is also an avid stormchaser in the U.S. Midwests Tornado Alley. He is 38 years-old and resides amongst his homes in the Greek Islands, Morocco and Australia.

About Space Adventures:

Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the worlds first private space explorers: Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari and Charles Simonyi, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts.