PARIS — MirCorp of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is planning to build the world’s first commercial space station, according to a top company official.

MirCorp.’s so-called Mini Station 1 will incorporate new Russian-built hardware and be about the size of the Salyut stations Russia operated in the 1970s and early 1980s, according to Jeffrey Manber, president of MirCorp.

Manber said the company plans to launch the Mini Station 1 by 2004 and send two paying customers a year to the outpost for trips of about 20 days each. In the meantime, Manber said, MirCorp has begun discussions with NASA, the European Space Agency and the other partners in the international space station program to send paying customers there until the first Mini Station is operational. He said his company already is negotiating with paying customers that include corporations and individuals.

Mini Station 1 will be manufactured by Rocket Space Corporation Energia, the Korolev-based organization that built Russia’s Salyut stations, the Mir space station and Russia’s contributions to the international space station. Manber said MirCorp signed a study contract with Energia — currently MirCorp’s largest shareholder — about four months ago to demonstrate the feasibility of the project to potential investors.

MirCorp signed an agreement Aug. 24 with theRussian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos, authorizing the Mini Station’s development and the use of Soyuz spacecraft. The Russian-language document was signed by Yuri Koptev, director general of Rosaviakosmos, Yuri P. Semenov, president and director general of Energia, and Manber.

Manber said the formal approval of the Russian government also is required, but added he expected that within a few weeks.

Manber said the next step will be raising private capital to fund construction of Mini Station 1. He said the company will raise that money with a combination of venture capital, commercial sponsors and the fees it will charge initial customers. "We need less than $100 million to pay for the construction of the station and the launch of the station and the Soyuz spacecraft," Manber said in a Sept. 3 interview here.

"MirCorp understands that the international space station is dedicated to world-class science and belongs to multiple governments," Gert Weyers, MirCorp senior vice president, said in a press release dated Sept. 4. "We have shown there is a market for a different type of customer, whether a tourist, a commercial scientist, a filmmaker or anyone who is healthy and has a dream of space travel. MirCorp’s mini station answers this commercial trend."

MirCorp negotiated a contract with U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito for a trip to the Russian space station Mir. When Russia agreed under pressure from the United States to de-orbit Mir Tito’s trip was transferred to the international space station via an agreement with Rosaviakosmos. Tito became the first space tourist earlier this year.

Manber said MirCorp’s business plan is to build hardware with proven technology and safety features that can be manufactured at a price that will allow the company to make a good return on its investment. The business assumptions are based on the current market prices for rides to low Earth orbit and the cost of maintaining the commercial station in orbit while it is not being used.

Once Mini Station 1 is operational, each mission will have a paying customer accompanied to the private station aboard a Soyuz by two professional cosmonauts for a stay of about two weeks. The commercial station will be outfitted with a large window designed to provide spectacular views of Earth. The Mini Station 1 crews will sleep in the Soyuz.

Manber said once each two-week trip is over, the paying guest will accompany the cosmonauts to the international space station. At that time the professional crew will change places with cosmonauts aboard the station whose tour of duty is up. Those cosmonauts then will accompany the tourist on the trip back to Earth in an old Soyuz that was docked to the station during the previous crew stay.

That way, Manber said, the commercial activity will help the Russian government pay for its obligations under the international space station agreement to provide Soyuz crew transport services.

Like the Mir station, Mini Station 1 will get water, fuel and other supplies from unmanned, automated Progress supply spacecraft, which will dock to Mini Station 1 at one of two docking ports.

Mini Station 1 is being designed to last 15 years in orbit and also will be serviced by manned Soyuz spacecraft.