The tourist`s name is Dennis Tito, and is
from the US. His lifelong dream has finally become true. For travell explorers
the sky is not longer the limit. NASA has now permitted to let tourist go in to
the space.
The American tycoon took off from
the international space station on a Russian rocket together with two Russian
cosmonauts from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0737 GMT on Saturday.
For travell explorers the sky is not longer the limit.
According to CNN, NASA had rejected
Tito to let him take the tour out to the orbit. Tiro is a Californian
businessman and former NASA employee. NASA changed their view earlier this week.
A television monitor inside the spaceship showed Tito smiled broadly.
Russian officials said Tito, who is
divorced with three grown-up children, received the equivalent of a professional
cosmonaut's training. CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty reported that
Tito's training was rigorous and included a Siberian wilderness survival course,
technical work and 900 hours of classroom training.
The space shuttle Endeavour docked
at the international space station on Saturday, bringing a robot arm to help the
station astronauts add on to their orbital outpost. The Endeavour originally was
scheduled to land on Monday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle now
will land no earlier than Tuesday.
The Soyuz-TM capsule carrying
Dennis Tito and two Russian cosmonauts separated from the booster nine minutes
after launching from Kazakhstan and entered orbit, and will hopefully land as
expected at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday.
It must be an fantastic
adventure for they who dare and can afford it. This is just the beginning of an
new trend for tourists who want some unique - far out in the
orbit!
Stein Morten Lund,
29th April 2001
Additional
information
Read more about exploring the
space:
NASA: "The goal of the Human
Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Enterprise is to open the space
frontier by exploring, using and enabling the development of space. Our programs
provide safe, assured transportation to and from space for people and payloads,
and develop and operate habitable space facilities in order to enhance
scientific knowledge, support technology development, and enable commercial
activity".
The four major goals of the HEDS
are the following:
- Increase human knowledge of
nature's processes using the space environment
- Explore the solar system Achieve
routine space travel Enrich life on
- Earth through people living and
working in space
www.nasa.gov
www.cnn.com
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