Fly to the Moon - for just $150 million

London ... Jenn Sander poses in the space suit of American astronaut Peggy Whitson, inside a space craft owned by Excalibur Almaz / pic: Getty Images Source: The Daily Telegraph

A BRITISH company is offering seats to adventurers willing to go the extra mile on a historic journey to the moon - a snip at just $150 million.

The first 800,000km round trip in a converted Soviet-era space station could take place as early as 2015.

Excalibur Almaz (EA) founder and chief executive Art Dula told a space tourism meeting in London: "We're ready to sell the tickets."

The Isle of Man-based space entrepreneur has acquired two Almaz space stations designed for orbital spying operations. Thrusters attached to the stations will convert them to long-distance spaceships.

Four re-entry capsules, or reusable return vehicles, will ferry three people at a time to the orbiting space station and return them to earth.

All the space vehicles - the cost of which is confidential - are housed in hangers on the Isle of Man.

Much of the actual flying will be computer-controlled and all necessary training, including the human skills needed to pilot the spacecraft, is provided in the package.If the bold plan succeeds, it will be the first manned Moon mission since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Mr Dula said: "The EA fleet has previously flown to space several times and will undertake many more missions. This is scientific fact, not fiction."

A giant Russian Proton rocket, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will put the 30-tonne space station into orbit.