In its first tourist launch in 12 years, the Kremlin sent two adventurers to the International Space Station (ISS) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezwa and his assistant. Next, Russia is mulling plans to add a special module onto the ISS for visitors to be able to take spacewalks outside the station, and eventually, trips to the moon.

"We will not give this niche to the Americans. We are ready to fight for it," Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin told reporters at a press conference related to the Maezawa launch.

In the early 2000s, Russian space agency Roscosmos was sending wealthy tourists to space on a regular basis - which came to a screeching halt in 2011 after NASA retired its shuttle for astronauts and booked every available Roscosmos seat for the next decade.

After Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a successful trip to the ISS, however, NASA dropped Roscosmos, freeing up seats for tourists at a cost of $90 million per flight. The change left the cash-strapped Russian space agency in difficult shape, compounded by budget cuts and corruption scandals.

In short, Russia had no choice but to start opening seats up to tourism - starting at an estimated $50 - $60 million per seat, which covers the cost of constructing the three-person Soyuz spacecraft in order to shuttle a crew of two, and a rich passenger to make the endeavor financially feasible.

"The Russian space industry is reliant on consistent orders for these launches," industry analyst Vitaly Yegorov told AFP.

In addition to operating funds, Russian space tourism is about pride.

"It's national prestige. It gets young people interested in manned spaceflight. It's the future, after all," says Dmitry Loskutov, head of Glavkosmos -- a subsidiary of Roscosmos responsible for commercial projects, including tourism.

Russia, China and the US are the only three countries capable of manned flights, however competition from newcomers such as SpaceX, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson has put pressure on the Kremlin to beef up their program.