Space Tourist Launched to International Space Station

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Space Tourist Launched to International Space Station

More Information:

A Soyuz U successfully launched Soyuz TM-32 carrying tourist Dennis Tito to the International Space Station (ISS) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, pad LC 1, at 0737 UTC (12:37 a.m. PDT) April 28. The Soyuz TM-32, flying on autopilot, docked with ISS at 1258 UTC (1:58 a.m. PDT) on April 30. Tito is reported to have paid US$20 million for his trip.

Tito is the second tourist to fly in space, but the first to pay for the trip. Helen Sharman flew to Mir in May 1991, winner of a lottery contest. Though the sponsors of her lottery contest eventually failed, Sharman completed her training and visited Mir, courtesy of the Russian Space Agency.

Tito originally signed to fly with MirCorp to visit the Russian Mir space station. He has spent the last year in training at Russia’s Star City training facilities. With the recent reentry of the Mir space station, the Russian’s switched his itinerary to the International Space Station, despite strong objections from NASA and other participants in the International Space Station.

Tito’s flight will likely be followed by other tourists. James Cameron, director of Titanic, is reported to be interested. The U.S. NBC network and German Brainpool television production company have both signed contracts to fly television show winners to space. NBC signed their contract with MirCorp, but Brainpool’s contract was through Astrium with the Russians. A recent study conducted by Andrews Space and Technology, host of this website and Digest service, found that the tourism industry is strongly interested in adding space tourism to their products. The report will be available in early May at www.andrews-space.com .

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April 28, 2001