After two years of speculation, will Johanna Maislinger, really make it to the International Space Station?
Updated, December 22nd 2020. Originally published, January 2019.
In the first 60 years of manned spaceflight, European Women in Space have been a few, and far between. Helen Sharman (1991), Claudie Andre-Deshays/Haignere (1996 and 2001) and Samantha Cristoferretti (2014).
But with no other candidates in the ESA pipeline, it will require a private initiative, to provide the next name for that list. Can a little know commercial pilot, and adventurer, from Austria, Johanna Maislinger, really be next?
In 2017, Maislinger revealed to me, and to others, that she planned to be next. It was an extraordinary claim. Was she serious? Could it happen?
Well, according to ongoing correspondence with the American company Space Adventures, it looks increasingly likely!
With Space Adventures having now secured up to six seats for tourists, in the next two years, on both Russian and American spacecraft the opportunity for candidates, such as Maislinger to fly, has never been greater.
Back in 2017, her plan was high on hype, and low on detail. She talked confidently about the partners who would make this happen; a big money financial sponsor from Berlin; the ‘Space Launch Provider’, US specialists, Space Adventures, who would facilitate the deal with the Russia agency, Roskosmos; and the top class media support which would promote her, and her project.
"They have experience of sending people into Space." and "Money and media support are no problem for me!” she claimed, implying that the project was fully funded. “This is so exciting for me!”
There was also the possibility of an opportunity to fly, which was opening up, in Russia. At that time, no space tourists had flown to the ISS, since 2009, although there was a possible flight opportunity, emerging in 2018. Was this the slot that Maislinger, and her team were eyeing?
So, two years after she set out her stall, what more do we know about Johanna Maislinger, and her plans? And with confirmed availability of ‘space tourist’ opportunities opening up, in 2021, through Space Adventures, is Maislinger now on the verge, of achieving a seemingly impossible dream?
This latest account has been compiled with the tacit endorsement, of both Johanna Maislinger, and Space Adventures.
Our paths crossed, in October 2016, when Johanna Maislinger was a candidate in the German project, ‘Die Astronautin’ which hoped to find the first German Woman Astronaut. Maislinger was one of 400 hopefuls, who registered to take part, even though she didn’t actually meet the initial eligibility criteria, being Austrian, rather than German.
I interviewed her for the British magazine, ‘Spaceflight’, one of around a dozen candidates who were happy to participate and who relished the publicity.
She progressed, seemingly effortlessly, to the final 30 candidates, which then involved a detailed evaluation by the German Space Agency (DLR) using criteria applied to the 2009 European Space Agency astronaut selection.
Her progress was not a big surprise, as she seemed to be a strong candidate. At the time, she was 31, an engineer, and airline pilot for ten years, flying Boeing 777’s as a Senior First Officer. (She was promoted to Captain, in 2018).
When not flying, she was studying for a medical degree, at the prestigious Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich, by her own admission, a difficult balancing act of challenging study, and a demanding job.
She also had a background in a number of extreme sports; aerobatics, mountaineering, horse-riding, sky-diving and skiing.
An attractive, and fashionable, blonde, she hadn’t applied to ‘Die Astronautin’ on a whim. It was all part of a plan. Her career choices; Aviation, Engineering, Medicine, were carefully chosen to, at some point, make her a strong ESA astronaut candidate.
"The longing to go into space has always been there, it’s not so much a childhood dream, but a dream I was born with. I’ve been working on my skills, to give me a chance, for a long time. The only job that brings together my skills as a pilot, an engineer and a doctor, is to become an astronaut!" she’d noted, for the interview for ‘Spaceflight’ magazine, in January 2017.
Some ‘Die Astronautin’ candidates were so concerned about her strengths, that they objected to her participation, while Maislinger set about trying to get a German passport, prior to the selection of the final candidates.
However, they didn’t need to worry, as, perhaps surprisingly, she was eliminated at the next stage. She claimed this was due to her being Austrian, and unable to acquire German citizenship quickly enough. The ‘Die Astronautin’ organisers later said she had simply, not passed the DLR test.
This definitely marked a change in her approach. Just weeks later, in April 2017, Johanna Maislinger revealed, quite freely, using Social Media, that she had been approached by 'someone in Berlin who is very interested to send me into Space'.
As improbable as this scenario might have seemed, she expanded her story over the following few months talking about meetings with her sponsors, the Space Launch Provider, and ‘really strong’ media partners.
She began to ask people outside her ‘inner circle’ for help and advice, including me. Besides fishing for information about the challenges other Space Adventures clients had faced, she was seeking information about the Russian Soyuz capsule. Eventually, she asked if it was possible to get a Soyuz flight manual? It was, and one was duly supplied.
She also mentioned another sponsor, who had been interested in supporting 'Die Astronautin', to the extent of €5 million, but who had been deterred by the lack of direct input into the selection of the two finalists, and they then threw their support behind Maislinger’s effort.
"The big sponsors all left (the Die Astronautin project) with me!" she explained.
All would be revealed, by the end of Summer 2017, Maislinger said repeatedly. In the days before her deadline, she used social media to send a message indicating, ‘I’ll be the next European woman in Space’
However, her deadline passed with no announcement, with Maislinger claiming that matters were delayed, as her German citizenship was still not finalised. She then disappeared from the public eye, closing down her entire Social Media presence, in the process.
Despite this, I thought it was a story worth pursing. It was inconceivable that such a smart woman would have invented such a story. So, what evidence has emerged in the last two years to prove, or disprove, Maislinger’s claims and assertions?
On the negative side, there is clearly the natural improbability of it all.
Since the advent of ‘space tourism’ several people have tried to secure financial support, and sponsorship, for such a trip, but none have succeeded. Among the most prominent were pop singer Lance Bass and former NASA official Lori Garver.
It’s natural to ask, “Why would anyone support Maislinger to the extent of around US$50million? Where is the payback? What is the point? Why is she special?”
That is a question which has been asked many times, and there is no easy answer. But, no matter how disappointed she was not to make the final cut in 'Die Astronautin', to make up the story she had shared so freely, if it had no substance, is equally unlikely.
She is a smart, ambitious and adventurous woman, and who would be unlikely to be taken in by false promises, or to set out such scenario and timeline, knowing it to be untrue.
In fact, several German and Austrian journalists have tried to track down Maislinger, in the last couple of years, to confront her about her extraordinary plans and claims. Some have been more successful than others, but the common theme is that she never confirms, or denies, anything.
However, a prominent German journalist who did actually speak to Maislinger about her plans wrote, ‘I conclude that the most likely scenario is, that she’s found a super-wealthy boyfriend, who wants to keep her happy.’
So, it’s recognised that the whole scenario around sponsorship is unclear, and will probably remain so, until either she, or the sponsor, are ready to identify themselves. However, in late 2020, a number of sources in Germany recalled a 'Citizen in Space' project, which was announced, in Berlin, in 2017. Behind this, was a venture capital company named Insterstellar Ventures. The timing, and nature, of this project seemed to match Maislinger's project, and the likelihood of two similar projects emerging, in Berlin, at the same time, seemed remote. An initial request for comment, sent to Insterstellar Ventures, elicited no response, adding to the intrigue.
But what other evidence is there, that her plans are genuine, and are still alive, as the Space Adventures flights in 2021, get closer, and the moment when they need to reveal their clients is approaching?
The first clue, outside Maislinger’s own claims emerged in late 2017, when rumours about “an Austrian woman”, who was trying to secure a Soyuz seat, began to circulating freely among Swiss and German players in the space launch, and space tourism, businesses. These could be traced back to, the Austrian-based TV channel, Red Bull TV, who were actually mentioning her name, in connection with a project they were developing.
Red Bull TV would certainly represent the “strong media partner” which Maislinger had spoken openly about, having a long track record of supporting extreme, and high-octane, sports, with substantial sponsorship deals, including Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere in 2012. With Red Bull being based in Salzburg, close to Maislinger’s home town of Bad Goisern, and her background in extreme sports, she would be a natural person to attract Red Bull’s interest, and a spaceflight might appeal to their sponsorship profile.
An approach to Red Bull's media offices, across their European network, in 2018 and 2019, elicited reluctant responses, denying any direct involvement, but not their knowledge, of Maislinger’s attempt to make it into Space.
The potential major sponsor who Maislinger indicated was prepared to inject €5 million into ‘Die Astronautin’, before switching their interest to her project, was identified, by multiple sources, as the giant German industrial conglomerate, Siemens, or more specifically, their healthcare division, Siemens Healthineers.
Many people connected to ‘Die Astronautin’ were aware that Maislinger had been in dialogue with Siemens, about a sponsorship deal. "They (Siemens) really want to go all the way with me!’" she had boasted, back in April 2017.
I’ve spoken to Siemens, many times. Tina Johne, Head of Marketing at Siemens Healthineers, when contacted, in February 2018, wrote enthusiastically, offering to share details of 'Johanna Maislinger's Story', subject to their internal clearances. This was a curious expression that Johne chose to use. Clearly, she knew that there was a ‘Story’ to tell, and thought it worth sharing!
However, Johne backed away quickly, after that initial response, and refused to say any more. It seems that Siemens are unlikely to have firmed up their initial interest, but, it’s evident that they were involved in early discussions with Maislinger and, some of their officials have a broad awareness of what she’s planning to do.
The key, of course, to the whole scenario are Space Adventures. In the past, all such flight opportunities have been facilitated through the American company, although they naturally guard their future client relationships very carefully. After almost twenty years, they remain the only organisation to have arranged spaceflights for private individuals. However, the last such flight was in 2009, and they must now be very keen to resume such missions.
The deal with Roskosmos, which they announced in February 2019, (Russia says it will launch two tourists in 2021) will provide two seats on a special Soyuz, now designated Soyuz MS-20, due to launch in December 2021, and return twelve days later.
My efforts to elicit clarification from Space Adventures about their relationship with Maislinger have met with mixed results. After several contacts through their various offices, and with different officials, they did, in 2019, confirm that she was a client, and a definite candidate for their Soyuz flight in 2021. However, at that point, they said that she was not in an immediate financial position to close the deal. But, they were working, together, on it. So, it seems that, however unlikely it may seem, to observers, Space Adventures must believe she has a realistic chance of raising the required financial support.
Of course, we have no sense of how many candidates Space Adventures have, in their pipeline, but the words of Space Adventures clearly confirm that they regard Maislinger as a genuine, and, possibly, their leading candidate. The contract that sits behind such a flight will be complex, and high value, and is unlikely to be finalised, and signed, until just before it is announced. With two seats available, the financial arrangements for the Soyuz MS-20 flight will be even more complex. For example, Space Adventures will be unlikely to contract with one client, unless the second one is ready to sign too.
Further efforts to persuade Space Adventures to say a little more, have met with limited success. In May 2020, their official spokesperson, Stacey Tearne, would only repeat earlier comments, "We do not confirm, or deny, the identity of any client until we formally announce their spaceflight intention”. But that brief comment makes it fairly clear that she is still an active client, in Space Adventures eyes.
Roscosmos, who are the provider of the actual Spaceflight, and all the associated training and preparations, have said that, as at March 2020, Space Adventures have not formally presented any candidates for the Soyuz MS-20 flights. But, this does not mean that candidates have not visited Moscow for medical checks, and orientation.
As this account was finalised, most areas of the Russian space sector are on 'lockdown'. Manufacturing of hardware for future missions has slowed down. The main centres of training and preparation are closed to outsiders. Travel to, and from, Russia is severely disrupted. It will be impossible for Maislinger, and any other potential candidates, to visit Moscow, until normal travel resumes. In 2019, Roscosmos said that they would prefer candidates to be confirmed, by June 2020.
Right in cue, in early July 2020, Moscow based media outlets published remarks from Space Adventures local office, which advised that two clients had signed contracts, for the MS-20 flight. However, their identities would not be revealed until around a year before launch, More recently, due to travel issues caused by CoVid-19, this date has slipped into early 2021. Presumably, back-up crews will be appointed, to provide some operational and financial resilience to their overall plans.
In November 2020, sources at the Cosmonaut Training Centre confirmed that that Johanna Maislinger's name is on the list of potential candidates, although there is no indication how long the list may be! Certainly, there are no indications from the Space Adventures side that she will not participate, while Maislinger, and those around her, continue to remain silent on all this, giving nothing away, whilst seemingly enjoying the attention, and growing publicity.
Of course, Space Adventures also have four seats available, on an Earth Orbital flight, with SpaceX, at around the same time, in late 2021.
These seats are likely to cost significantly less than the two Soyuz seats. If Maislinger is out-bid for one of those two Soyuz seats, the Dragon flight, might offer a pretty attractive fall-back. Bearing in mind, that the Dragon will fly in automated mode, with the four passengers only trained to handle emergencies. In June 2020, during an interview with Aviation Week, Space X CEO, Gwynne Shotwell said, 'one of the passengers will be trained up enough, to be in charge' As extraordinary as that might seem, an experienced pilot, with a medical degree and an engineering background might be a good option, to be 'in charge'.
But, for now, that is another story.
