If you are in Russia and a person with deep pockets, chances are you may soon have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly 400km up to the space station and set out on a spacewalk.

Until now, only trained astronauts have gone out on spacewalks, but Russia is looking to change that by exploring the idea of sending five to six paying customers to the International Space Station for up to 10 days.

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During these visits, the tourists will not only experience microgravity but will also fly out to see and capture the beauty of the cosmos, Vladimir Solntsev, the head of Russian space company Energia told Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The plan, according to a report in The Guardian, will rely on a new spacecraft which the company is developing.

The module, dubbed NEM-2, will have comfortable cabins, toilets, and internet connectivity and launch five to six tourists to the space station. It will be as comfortable as it could get in space and "should be launched in 2019", the space official was quoted as saying.

Russian spacewalks
Russia planning spacewalks for paying tourists REUTERS/NASA/Scott Kelly/Handout

However, it is worth noting that the trip will not come cheap. Solntsev told the paper that a single trip to the ISS will cost approximately $100m (£70m), with a possibility of a discount for the first takers. "Market analysts have confirmed this: wealthy people are ready to pay money for this," he added.

Other specifics of the spacewalks or the 10-day long trips are still not clear, but these won't be the first passenger trips to the ISS. Seven millionaires have already been to the space station, with the first one being American multimillionaire Dennis Tito who flew in 2001.

Russia's plan of sending tourists on spacewalks comes as American spacefaring giants Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin gear up to send tourists to low-Earth to experience microgravity. Previously, Russia has even expressed hopes of building a five-star hotel on the space station.