Tito Signs Contract With Rosaviacosmos for Space Tourism Adventure

Dennis Tito signed a contract with Rosaviacosmos, the Russian Space Agency, for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) as a tourist on board a Russian Soyuz TM spacecraft. Tito is scheduled to launch on April 30, with Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin. Tito’s mission is expected to be 10-14 days long. The size of the contract has not been disclosed, but is thought to be in the range of US$12 - 20 million.

Tito has started training full-time for his trip. The only contingency in Tito’s contract is the formal approval of the [Russian] State Interdepartmental Commission to be on the crew, and that is viewed as a formality that in part involves making the final medical review. An official with the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow stated that NASA and the other partners have little say in the matter. "We don’t need NASA’s permission to select the visiting crew, but we still notify them." For the next three months Tito will be undergoing theoretical, classroom, and flight simulator training. A training trip to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas with fellow cosmonauts Baturin and Musabayev is scheduled Feb. 26 through March 2.

NASA and Rosaviacosmos are tentatively scheduled to meet the week of February 12 at Johnson Space Center in Houston. One of the key issues on the agenda will be the topic of launching civilians in the extra seat aboard three-man Russian Soyuz spacecraft making ferry flights to the international space station. Under intergovernmental agreements signed in January 1998, Rosaviacosmos is responsible for keeping a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station at all times. The flight for which Tito is scheduled is necessary to replace the Soyuz TM rescue vehicle. The spacecraft's six-month service life will have ended by then.

Jorg E. Feustel-Buechl, Director of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity for the European Space Agency (ESA) has said Russia has no right to launch "amateurs" to the space station until its safety and security are fully assured. Feustel-Buechl said that if Russia proceeds with the Tito mission, it will be in violation of an intergovernmental agreement signed by Russia and the other space station partners. The International Space Station Intergovernment Agreement does not specifically address civilian or commercial visitors. Memoranda of understanding between NASA and the ISS partners does govern decisions related to crew matters. Those memoranda provide that crew selection must be the subject of consensus among the space station partners in the interest of safety and limited crew-flight opportunities.

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