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 and links
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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