Tito Wants to Open Space Travel to All

Do-it-yourself astronaut Dennis Tito returned home to Los Angeles on Wednesday, pledging to spend the rest of his life trying to open space travel to ordinary people.

The Pacific Palisades financier, who reportedly paid Russia $20 million for a ride to and from the International Space Station, said he wants to help create a commercial venture that would shuttle tourists into space at a much lower cost.

His eight-day personal space odyssey proved that “if a person my age can do it, anybody can do it,” the 60-year-old Tito told a cheering crowd at Los Angeles International Airport.

“It’s a piece of cake to fly in space,” he said. “It’s not a big deal.”

Tito said space travel is exhilarating and emotional, and the view of Earth is awe-inspiring. He said he listened to opera as he gazed out the space station’s portholes and shot 30 rolls of film.

He said he is surprised that professional astronauts do not often describe Earth orbit in emotional terms.

“Maybe it’s something ordinary for them, being usually test pilots. For me, being a civilian and being around for 60 years . . . I think I have a sense of appreciation of what a privilege I had to be able to experience Earth from 240 miles up. We have a beautiful planet.”

Tito said he hoped to “have a role in the years ahead in creating an opportunity for people to fly to space. People can afford to go to space now. There are a lot of wealthy people in the world. But I think the cost has to be brought down significantly. We have to develop reusable launch vehicles. We have to focus on bringing the ordinary person to space.”

Although U.S. space officials have criticized him for buying his way onto the International Space Station, Tito said the American space crew was cordial to him. He said he stayed out of their way.

“I’m a big boy,” Tito said. “It’s somewhat understandable because bureaucracies don’t like to change, and this clearly forced a change and it’s going to have an impact.”

Tito said he hoped the U.S. space agency might be persuaded now to bring private citizens into its program.

“I would like to encourage NASA to include in their seven-passenger shuttle flights maybe one seat with private individuals who represent various creative aspects of our culture: poets, philosophers, reporters, artists, teachers,” he said.

“We could name a list of 100 different people. Think over the next 10 or 15 years, 100 people who are private citizens who have creativity could experience what I experienced. It would bring it into our culture. We’ve been in space as humans 40 years and we don’t have it in our music, our opera, our poetry, our literature. This is the Space Age. This is the 21st century, ironically, 2001.”

The airport reception, which attracted dozens of space enthusiasts, was organized by Mayor Richard Riordan. Tito once served as Riordan’s appointee to the Department of Water and Power Commission. One of Tito’s sons, Michael, also worked as an aide to the mayor.

Calling Tito “the hero of L.A.,” Riordan asked whom he would choose to portray him if a movie were made of his space adventure.

The bald, 5-foot, 5-inch Tito suggested Dustin Hoffman. “But then he’d have to shave his head and I don’t know how he’d look,” he quipped.

Tito was met at the airport by his girlfriend, Dawn Abraham, and sons Michael and Brad, who planted a big kiss on the top of his head after he stepped from a Russian Aeroflot airliner that returned him from Moscow.

He made a point of greeting space fans bearing signs welcoming him home before heading for a private family reunion.

Pam Leestma, a Bellflower teacher who belongs to the Orange County Space Society, wore a vest plastered with NASA patches as she waved a handwritten sign that read: “Dreams Do Come True.” Next to her was Brian Husting, an Irvine architect who hopes to develop a hotel in space.