For $100m, space tourists will be able to journey to the far side of the moon with Space Adventures, the Virginia-based company that pioneered space tourism, as soon as 2008, Space Adventures officials said on Wednesday.

Two seats aboard a Soyuz spacecraft piloted by a Russian cosmonaut will sell to the public for $100m (€81m, £56m) each, Eric Anderson, chief executive of Space Adventures, said. Lunar trips lasting eight to 21 days will run an elliptical orbit around the moon and come within 100km of its surface.