Space Adventures Ltd, which is collaborating with the Federal Space Agency of Russia, said Olsen is paying 20 million dollars for a seat on a Russian Soyuz rocket that will blast him to the ISS where he will stay for one week.

Olsen is Space Adventures' third space tourist, and will follow American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth who visited space in 2001 and 2002 respectively. The company has an exclusive contract with the Russian space agency to conduct four commercial flights to the ISS by 2007.

Olsen, 58, will start training for his planned vacation in April at Russia's Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City.

"I hope that by travelling to the International Space Station I can help inspire today's youth to dream big and to realize that education, hard work and a desire to achieve your vision is the magic of America," Olsen said in a statement released through Space Adventures.

Olsen visited Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center last week and made a positive impression there, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency said late Monday.

The heads of Russia's space program "so far have a positive opinion on our future space guest, as a man and as a professional," Sergei Gorbunov told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Olsen is the chief executive officer of Sensors Unlimited Inc, a New Jersey-based near-infrared camera maker. He sold the company for 700 million dollars in 2000 but bought it back in 2002 for seven million dollars, making a huge profit.

He plans to conduct his own experiments aboard the space station.

"Dr Olsen not only is committed to motivating young people to study science and technology, but also plans to undertake several science and engineering projects during his flight," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive of Space Adventures.

Gorbunov confirmed that Olsen could conduct experiments on the ISS. The American "can go to the ISS not just as a tourist, but as a coparticipant in a serious scientific and research mission," he said.

Prior to Sensors Unlimited, Olsen started and ran Epitaxx before selling the company for 12 million dollars.

Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1945, Olsen is the son of an electrician and a school teacher, according to a biography released Monday. He has a doctorate in materials science from the University of Virginia.

Space Adventures is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with an office in Moscow.

Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin sits on its advisory board along with other former US shuttle astronauts.

SPACE.WIRE