http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010430/sc/space_russia_dc_20.html

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010430/sc/space_russia_dc_20.html

Monday April 30 11:48 PM ET

Space Tourist All Smiles As He Checks in to Station

By Artyom Danielyan

KOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - The first tourist in orbit checked into his holiday destination Monday and said he was enjoying every minute.

``Welcome aboard!'' said Yuri Usachev, Russian commander of the International Space Station (news - web sites), said in cheerful English as a hatch opened, admitting 60-year-old California millionaire Dennis Tito and two Russian cosmonauts from their Soyuz capsule.

``I love space!'' Tito announced. He grinned enormously and gave a thumbs-up sign as he floated through the space station.

``It was a great trip here. I don't know about this adaptation that they're talking about. I'm already adapted,'' said Tito, who had paid a reported $20 million fare.

``Dennis has gotten about 10 years younger,'' said Talgat Musabayev, Tito's commander aboard the Soyuz.

Russian mission control said Tito had been unwell Sunday and had vomited, but had quickly recovered. Motion sickness is common even among professional spacemen, especially on their first day in space.

Tito and the two accompanying Russians are to spend a week as guests of Usachev and his two American crewmates on board the International Space Station.

Usachev and his crew, in red short-sleeved polo shirts, gave boisterous bear hugs to the newcomers, who arrived in baggy Russian space suits. Russian officials said the visiting crew would spend the rest of Monday mainly at leisure.

``I hope Dennis comes home soon, because a cosmonaut's job is so difficult and dangerous,'' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Tito's girlfriend, Dawn Abraham, as saying.

Nasa Bristles

The U.S. space agency NASA (news - web sites) disapproved of the amateur space buff's trip to the $95 billion space station, saying his presence could prove a dangerous distraction in an emergency.

The financier will not be allowed into U.S. segments of the orbiter without an escort and has had to pledge to pay for anything he breaks.

Russia says it is a full partner in the space station, and insists that it can fill its seat quota with whomever it wants. Yuri Semyonov, president of Energiya, the Russian company that builds and flies Moscow's spaceships, told reporters the restrictions placed on Tito's movements in the space station were ``of a political character,'' but said Tito would obey them.

``If our American partners see that it is possible to let their countryman onto their territory, we will not interfere.''

Semyonov said Russia was interested in arranging more commercial manned flights and Tito could have a role in this.

``He will make much effort to allow commercial projects to continue,'' Semyonov said. ``We have discussed this already. He has possibilities, he has good ties.

Interfax news agency quoted the head of the Russian space agency, Yuri Koptev, as saying Sunday that the agency was already in discussions with Energiya about future tourist candidates. He did not elaborate.

Koptev said Russian space authorities planned to work out a list of requirements for amateurs and rules for their missions to avoid a repetition of the friction which arose with their U.S. partners over Tito. This could be drafted by the autumn.

Even after NASA gave its grudging approval for Tito's trip, computer glitches on the space station had threatened to delay his arrival. NASA prolonged a visit by the Space Shuttle Endeavour to help out while the orbiter's crew improvised a set-up to replace three computers that crashed.

Sunday NASA cut Endeavour loose, freeing a path for Tito's Soyuz to dock.

The space station is jointly owned by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and European countries. Washington is footing the lion's share of the cost, but Moscow -- with unrivalled space station experience gained from 15 years flying its Mir -- has designed and built many of the key parts.

-- Tidbit (of@the.day), May 02, 2001

Answers

I wonder if NASA is going to have Tito killed after he finds out about their secrets on board the ISS.

-- Tony Baloney (Fuck the@repugs.com), May 02, 2001.

An era of tourists in space has begun.

-- ($@$.$), May 02, 2001.

Rofl, reminds me of Lost in Space.

Its all fun and games till somebody fucks around and gets lost :-)

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), May 02, 2001.

NASA is not happy.

Link

Wednesday May 2 9:06 PM ET

Space Tour May Cost More Than $20M

By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - History's first paid space tourist got his trip to orbit in the ``wrong way'' and his Russian hosts may end up having to pay for it, the chief of NASA (news - web sites) said Wednesday.

NASA administrator Daniel Goldin told a House subcommittee that Dennis Tito, a California tycoon who ignored the objections of NASA and paid Russia $20 million to fly him to the space station, has caused anxiety among space workers who oversee the mission's safety.

``The current situation has put an incredible stress on the men and women of NASA,'' Goldin told the committee. ``Mr. Tito does not realize the effort of thousands of people, United States and Russia, who are working to protect his safety and the safety of everyone else.''

Tito was launched over the weekend with two Russian crewmates aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and boarded the international space station Monday for a six-day stay.

Russia had accepted $20 million to fly Tito to the Mir space station (news - web sites), but switched him to the international space station after the Mir was junked and dumped into the ocean.

NASA and other partners in the space station objected to Tito's plans, claiming that the Californian was not properly trained and that the station was not ready for amateur space trippers.

NASA also objected to Russia selling tourist trips without the agreement of the other space station partners. An agreement was finally reached, but Goldin said Wednesday it may be costly for the Russians.

``In our agreement that we worked out with the Russians we will do an assessment and ... get a reimbursement, I want to assure you,'' said Goldin.

Considering lost research time, extra safety measures and other expenses forced on NASA, a congressman suggested the cost could be more than the $20 million that Tito paid. Goldin said he would ``reserve judgment'' on the amount, but promised to report it to the committee.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration chief praised another rich Californian yearning to fly in space - Oscar-winning movie director James Cameron - for deciding to delay his trip until the space station is ready for tourists.

In what he called a ``contrast'' with Tito, Goldin said Cameron was ``an American patriot who understood how to do this.''

Cameron, who won the Academy Award for best director in 1997 for the film ``Titanic,'' approached him six months ago and asked about going into space, said Goldin, but was told the station program wasn't yet accepting tourists.

Goldin quoted Cameron as saying: ``I am going to wait until the partners work things out and then go at an appropriate time and I'll even train.'' Goldin said Cameron understood ``what is the right way and the wrong way to do things.''

NASA does not oppose trips by nonprofessional astronauts when the station is ready, he said.

``We think there is a place for researchers, educators, artists and other people to go into space,'' he said.

-- (anxiety@at.NASA), May 03, 2001.

Shame on you Sumer, you potty-mouth alcoholic!

-- (wash your mouth out @ you. drunk tramp), May 03, 2001.

NASA to Send Russians Bill for Tito Visit, Goldin Says

By Stew Magnuson

Space News Staff Writer

posted: 03:06 pm ET

02 May 2001

WASHINGTON -- When space tourist Dennis Tito finishes his visit to the International Space Station, NASA will be sending Russia a bill, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin told members of Congress on May 2.

The Russian Aviation and Space Agency agreed to reimburse NASA for any delays in space station construction or man-hours spent baby- sitting Tito during his stay at the orbital outpost, Goldin told the House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

Rep. Nicholas Lampson (D-Texas), a member of the panel, which has NASA oversight, said he is having a hard time explaining to his constituents why millionaires are taking trips to the space station when research, development and components related to the facility are being cut back for budgetary reasons.

Once Tito departs the station, NASA will perform an assessment of the cost of the visit and send Russia a bill seeking part of the $20 million Tito paid for the trip, Goldin said.

"After that assessment, we will get reimbursed," Goldin said. more

http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacepolicy/nasa_tito_bill_010502.html

-- ($@$.$), May 03, 2001.

If there's a way to take the joy out of anything, someone will figure out how to do it.

NASA's reaction is downright embarassing.

Why not be proud of one of the few firsts America has in space? This pettiness is not becomming.

-- Pam (Pam@j.o.e), May 03, 2001.

VTourists in Space

By Charles Seife

Saturday, May 5, 2001; Page A19

For a mere $20 million or so, you can stuff yourself into a cramped, smelly chamber, strap yourself to a long cylinder filled with explosive liquids and risk your life as someone -- safely shielded in a building some distance away -- sets the whole contraption alight. That's reportedly what Dennis Tito did, buying a seat aboard a Russian rocket and purchasing the honor of being the first space tourist. Unfortunately for Tito, that title has been sold more times than the Brooklyn Bridge.

The strongest claim is more than a decade old. On Dec. 2, 1990, Toyohiro Akiyama, a reporter with the Japanese television station TBS, lifted off aboard a Soyuz rocket -- very similar to the one that catapulted Tito into orbit -- and docked with Mir shortly thereafter. The week-long stay set Akiyama's station back tens of millions of dollars.

The following May, Helen Sharman became the first British spacefarer when she visited Mir. Though the United Kingdom was supposed to pick up the tab, most of it was paid for by a Moscow bank.

Space mavens soon knew the going price for a rocket ride. In 1999 many journalists smelled trouble when the Russian firm Energia announced that businessman Peter Llewellyn was paying $100 million to visit the aging station -- between five and 10 times the usual price. Sure enough, the "deal" fell through within weeks.

Mir, the main source of pride for the Russian space effort for more than a decade, was also a boon for advertisers. Over the years, the station's cosmonauts have filmed commercials for bananas, milk, pretzels and even Pepsi. In February 1998, the humiliated-looking crew hawked space pens on a home shopping network.

But don't think that Russia has a monopoly on space tourism and commercialization -- though the United States tends to give joy rides to politicians rather than to entrepreneurs. On April 12, 1985, NASA launched Sen. Jake Garn aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Thanks to this flight, he apparently earned the nickname "Barfin' Jake."

And let us not forget the famous second space flight of Sen. John Glenn. If you don't think that he was a tourist, consider the fact that an undisclosed medical reason rendered him ineligible for some of the experiments he was supposedly sent up to perform.

Russia's space program has embraced capitalism, while America's does favors only for its own version of the Politburo. If the Hilton Hotel chain ever completes its design for a lunar or an orbital resort (yes, the corporation has floated the ideas) I think it's a pretty safe guess which country is going to provide transportation. After all, a mere hundred senators can't fill up an entire Hilton.

Charles Seife is a journalist at Science magazine.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

-- Pam (Pam@j.o.e), May 05, 2001.