NEW YORK, June 11, 2008 (AFP) The first private space flight to the International Space Station (ISS) will blast off in 2011 in a deal with the Russian space agency and could be carrying space tourist Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

“We believe 99 percent of people want to experience space,” the head of the US company, Space Adventures, Eric Anderson, told a press conference on Wednesday. “Our goal is to have at least one mission to the ISS per year. There are more and more young billionaires who can afford the cost of a spaceflight.”

Google's billionaire technology president Brin has reserved his seat on a future flight with a five-million dollar investment in the Virginia-based company which arranges space flights for ultra-wealthy clients. “I am a big believer in the exploration and commercial development of the space frontier, and am looking forward to the possibility of going into space,” Brin said in a statement.

Brin, 34, who made a fortune from designing the successful Internet search engine Google with partner Larry Page, does not yet have a definite date for his trip to the stars. “He is planning to go, he has brought five million dollars as an advance. He may be flying in three years, maybe in five years, but he will go. He has to train,” Anderson said.

Under the deal with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation, two seats will be available on a specially manufactured Soyuz flight in 2011. Space Adventures made headlines in 2001 when client Dennis Tito became the worlds first privately funded space flight participant.