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Space Tourist Tito's Long Journey Into Orbit

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When millionaire Dennis Tito blasted into space Saturday, it was the end of a journey as well as a beginning -- for the new space voyager and for NASA (news - web sites) as well.

The 60-year-old former rocket scientist has said he became fascinated with outer space when he saw the Soviet Sputnik satellite blinking overhead in 1957. Now, with the Soviet Union gone and Russia strapped for cash, Tito's dream and $20 million combined to get him a trip aboard a Soyuz taxi flight.

He is not, strictly speaking, the first amateur in space.

Previous non-professionals include a Japanese journalist, a British chemist, and Christa McAuliffe, who trained to be the first teacher in space but died with six others when the space shuttle Challenger exploded seconds after its 1986 launch.

But Tito, a self-made millionaire who runs a pension investment advisory business and invented a stock index, is first person to pay his own way.

Tito is the second oldest person to be in space after former U.S. senator and ex-astronaut John Glenn, who went up into orbit for the second time in his life at the age of 77.

``A fundamental objection is the view that astronauts are heroes and that you have to be a hero with the right stuff to fly in space,'' said John Pike, a longtime space analyst and current director of the Web site www.globalsecurity.org. ''Dennis Tito obviously doesn't fit that mold.''

Tito became a problem to NASA when his original space destination, the Russian Mir station, became unavailable. The aging station was scuttled in the South Pacific last month.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration had no say when Tito was set to fly only on Russian ships. However, when the Russians said their paying guest would fly aboard Soyuz and spend a week on the $95 billion International Space Station (news - web sites), NASA objected.

A DANGEROUS DISTRACTION?

The key objection was that Tito had not learned emergency procedures for the American sections of the orbiting outport.

NASA officials, and those from the space agencies of Europe, Canada and Japan, also worried that the amateur would be a dangerous distraction at a particularly busy time in the construction of the international station.

Computer problems aboard the station this past week did nothing to allay jitters.

Another underlying concern was that Russia had decided without consulting the other international partners on the station to send a non-professional into space.

Tito has trained for nine months on the Russian systems, and the two Russians who will fly aboard Soyuz with him considered him more than capable. In fact, they staged a one-day walkout from a training session in Houston in March when they learned Tito would not be allowed to participate.

An official of Energiya space corporation, which was in charge of Mir, dismissed NASA's objections at that time.

``I think that this is due to political reasons. They do not want an American citizen to visit Russia's section of the space station on a Russian ship,'' said Energiya chief designer Yuri Semyonov. ``He must be launched and he will be launched.''

When it became clear that Tito would be launched, NASA officials began negotiating with the station partners, including Russia.

``Nobody's saying he's going to get in the way,'' Canadian Space Agency (news - web sites) President Mac Evans said last week. ``The question is what things would have to take place to ensure the safety of the people and the equipment.''

This became clear Tuesday, when NASA officials announced the agreement that Tito and the Russians had reached to clear the way for his journey: the California businessman will have to stay out of American sections of the station unless escorted by a member of the station crew, and will have to pay for anything he breaks. He also agreed not to sue if he is injured.

``Once he finally gets up there,'' Pike said, ``he's going throw up for three days ... spend three days looking out the window and bore people to tears for decades to come.''