MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A six-month commercial Soyuz flight to the International Space Station (ISS) is planned for 2022-2023, according to files obtained by Sputnik.

According to the documents, the launch of a Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft with a Russian cosmonaut as crew commander and two unknown crew members is planned for October 2022, while a return to Earth is planned for April 2023. No details are provided on the two passengers.

Earlier this month, it was reported that two space tourists would will fly to the ISS in late 2021 on board the Russian Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft.

In February 2019, Russian space agency Roscosmos and US-based company Space Adventures signed a contract to organize the flight of two space tourists to the ISS before the end of 2021.

According to files obtained by Sputnik, the launch of the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft with two tourists and a Russian cosmonaut as crew commander is planned for December 2021. Their return to Earth is scheduled for January 2022. Thus, the space tourists will be able to celebrate New Year in orbit.

In March, Pavel Vlasov, the head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, told Sputnik that Space Adventures had not provided them with information about the two tourists.

Roscosmos and Space Adventures have been cooperating in space tourism since 2001, when the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, went into orbit. Since then, seven people have been in space under the space tourism program.