Google co-founder Sergey Brin is to boldly go where not many people have gone before.

The Russian-born co-creator of the internet search engine has made a $5 million (£2.5 million) down-payment to book a seat aboard a specially-built Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in 2011.

The trip, organised by Virginia-based Space Adventures, will be the first private flight to the orbiting space station.

“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,” Mr Brin said.

“Space Adventures helped open the space frontier to private citizens and thus pave the way for the personal spaceflight industry,” he said.

The flight will carry Mr Brin and a second “space tourist” as well as a Russian pilot.

Space Adventures has already blasted five tourists into space since investment manager Dennis Tito became the world’s first privately funded space flight participant in 2001.

A sixth is due to lift off in October - at a cost of $35 million for the seat.

Previous “space tourists” have all piggy-backed on scheduled Soyuz flights.

But Eric Anderson, Space Adventures CEO, said the company now plans to build its own Soyuz rocket for annual private missions carrying two passengers each.

He announced the creation of an Orbital Mission Explorers Circle of would-be passengers who would each contribute $5 million to help finance the project.

He said there were only five more spaces for “CEOs, executives, investors and entrepreneurs” who wanted to be founder members of the Explorers Circle.

The company says the fact that the 2011 flight is private will mean the passengers can take more cargo, even enabling them to conduct their own experiments in space.

Russian officials insisted the Soyuz flight would not affect the running of the space station. “This private mission, flying two Space Adventures clients at once, will not interfere with the implementation of the ISS program or the obligations of the Russian space agency; on the contrary it shall add flexibility to our ISS transportation capabilities,” said Alexey Krasnov of Russia’s Federal Space Agency.

Mr Brin, 34, the son of Soviet mathematicians, moved to America as a child and dropped out of the PhD programme at Stanford University to set up Google with fellow student Larry Page.

He is now worth an estimated $18.7 billion, putting him in 32nd place on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s super-rich.

Explore Tech & Web

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming