U.S. Millionaire Hitches Ride to Space Station
A Soyuz rocket carrying U.S. millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and a Russian-American crew lifted off from the Central Asian steppe, launching the world’s third space tourist on a two-day journey to the international space station.
Olsen, 60, is the founder of an infrared-camera maker based in Princeton, N.J. He reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on the Expedition 12 flight, which lifted off from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with an earsplitting blast.
Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and U.S. astronaut William McArthur are riding with him.
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