U.S. Objects, but Russia OKs American’s Pricey Spaceflight

Dennis Tito’s countdown has begun.

Russian space officials, defying complaints from NASA, on Wednesday formally approved the 60-year-old Los Angeles millionaire to serve as the third member of Moscow’s next mission to the International Space Station. They set the launch date for April 28.

Tito will fork over about $20 million for the flight, making him the world’s first American “space tourist.” But he considers himself a space pioneer in his own right.

“I do not regard the flight as commercial tourism,” Tito told a news conference at the Russian cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, according to the Interfax news agency. “I would like to show that this can be done. More and more people should follow. If they do, the price will come down.”

NASA officials have complained bitterly about Tito’s flight, fearing that his presence will at best disrupt work aboard the station and at worst put the lives of other crew members in danger. The space agency wants the trip postponed until October so that Tito can train on U.S. space station systems. But since the ISS is an international project, they can’t tell the Russians whom they can and can’t bring up for a visit.

The Russian decision came on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the country’s greatest moment in space travel--the 1961 flight of Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the Earth.

Tito’s colleagues on the mission, commander Talgat Musabayev and cosmonaut Yuri Baturin, praise the American’s skills and preparation. Last month, they boycotted a training session at Johnson Space Center in Houston when NASA officials barred Tito.

“Tito is a full-fledged crew member,” Musabayev insisted.

Musabayev is the only career cosmonaut on the Russian crew. Baturin, although trained as a physicist, was a top security aide to former President Boris N. Yeltsin. He made his first spaceflight in 1998, at which time he was dubbed the “first politician in space.”

Tito, a former aerospace engineer turned investment banker, says his job will be to take photos and report on the mission over the Internet. He has learned enough Russian to get by in emergencies; the operational language on the station will be English.

Tito will not be the first passenger to pay his way into space; for more than a decade, the Russian and Soviet space programs have subsidized their missions by launching foreign passengers. In 1990, the Tokyo Broadcasting System paid the Soviets $12 million to have one of its TV reporters take a ride to the Mir space station. In 1991, a British scientist won a trip to the Mir sponsored by a London bank. And in recent years, NASA has paid the Russians to host its astronauts aboard Mir as training for the ISS.