| SPACE TRAVEL | SPACE DAILY | SPACE WAR | TERRA DAILY | MARS DAILY | SPACE MART | GPS DAILY | ENERGY DAILY |
 |
Moscow (Interfax) Jan. 30, 2001 Head of the Russian Aerospace Agency Yuri Koptev has signed a contract for U.S. businessman Dennis Tito's flight up to the International Space Station (ISS) as a tourist on board the Russian 'Soyuz-TM' spacecraft, the Agency's press service has told Interfax. The world's first space tourist is expected blast off on April 30 on a so-called visit mission, along with Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin. The size of the contract has yet to been officially disclosed, but certain sources say it is around $20 million. After arriving for his training at the Gagarin cosmonaut-training center Tito developed pneumonia and is now receiving treatment at the Defense Ministry hospital that examines and treats all military cosmonauts, Interfax learned at the center. Another source reports that Tito is in satisfactory condition and after his recovery will be able to start training for his space flight. Experts from the training center are sure he will be able to go through the entire training process required for a brief mission to the ISS. This visit mission is expected to be two weeks long. The mission is necessary to replace the Soyuz TM rescue vehicle that delivered the first long mission to the ISS in the persons of U.S. astronaut William Shepherd, and Russia's Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalyov on November 2. The spacecraft's six-month service life will have expired by then. The second long mission will fly to the ISS and replace the first on board a U.S. space shuttle at the end of March. Tito, 60, graduated from a U.S. aerospace university and for five years worked on unmanned space programs at NASA, and was also involved in the program of exploratory missions to Mars and Venus. He later set up his own company, which among other things applies space technologies.
Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Russian Space Cargo Ship Comes Down Over Pacific Ocean
Moscow (AFP) Jan. 29, 2001A cargo vessel from the Russian space platform Mir due to be destroyed in March plunged into the Pacific Ocean Monday five days after detaching itself to make way for a fuel delivery ship, media reported.
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
Copyright 2001 
