IN SPACE/KAZAKHSTAN/RUSSIA: DENNIS TITO, THE WORLD'S FIRST SPACE TOURSIT, RETURNS FROM HIS HOLIDAY IN SPACE

Record ID: 402568

  • Title: IN SPACE/KAZAKHSTAN/RUSSIA: DENNIS TITO, THE WORLD'S FIRST SPACE TOURSIT, RETURNS FROM HIS HOLIDAY IN SPACE
  • Date: 6th May 2001
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (MAY 6, 2001) (REUTERS/AGENCY POOL) LV RUSSIAN SPACE AGENCY MISSION CONTROL CU SCREEN SHOWING GRAPHIC OF SOYUZ CAPSULE WITH PARACHUTE AND RESCUE HELICOPTERS SV/LV/CU SPACE ENGINEERS APPLAUD AS LANDING IS CONFIRMED/MISSION CONTROL ROOM WITH SCREEN (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 21st May 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: IN SPACE / MOSCOW, CHKALOVSKY AND STAR CITY, RUSSIA/ NEAR ARKALYK AND ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Russian Federation Kazakhstan In Space
  • Topics: People,Technology,Travel / Tourism,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAA7SUY4SY93HR08U06ODF0Z3ZF
  • Story Text: Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, returned from his holiday saying that he felt "the best I have ever felt in my entire life".
    The Russian Soyuz capsule touched down right on time at 0541 GMT on Sunday (May 6) and was dragged 15 metres (around 50 feet) across the barren Kazakh Steppe as a strong side-wind caught its parachute.
    Shortly afterwards the American millionaire, who reportedly paid the hard-up Russians 20 million US dollars for the flight, and Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin emerged from the capsule and gave an impromptu news briefing.
    "It was a soft landing, it was very exciting," the 60-year-old Tito, a former NASA rocket scientist who runs a pension investment advisory business, said.
    They had blasted off for the 95 billion US dollar International Space Station (ISS) on April 28, leaving behind a furious row between U.S. and Russian space officials about the propriety of Tito's trip.
    Tito's travelling companions, Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin, appeared fit and well after their eight day voyage and walked themselves for a brief check-up at a nearby field hospital.
    But Tito had trouble walking and was taken to the hospital in a wheelchair, although his mood was clearly upbeat. Before going for a check-up, the three were each given an apple, a national symbol in Kazakhstan.
    Tito tried to juggle the apples, saying, "You see, I'm still used to weightlessness... But I enjoyed this trip. I've finally had my dream."
    The cosmonauts then boarded a helicopter to fly to Kazakhstan's steppe capital, Astana, where they met Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
    The three cosomonauts later held a news conference, where Tito told journalists that he felt great in space. "I was worried that being in space might be difficult," he said.
    "I was worried that I might not feel well. I turned out to feel the best I have ever felt in my entire life"
    They were then flown to Moscow's Chkalovsky airport where they boarded a bus to Star City, outside Moscow. A traditional "bread and salt" welcome was given to them at Star City.
    The Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos overrode vociferous protests from its U.S. counterpart NASA to put Tito in space.
    NASA said the space buff had no place on what is in effect still a construction site.
    The unprecedented public spat over the Tito trip has taken relations between Russian and U.S. space officials to their lowest level since 1999, when NASA accused the Russian space agency of failing to take its ISS obligations seriously.
    Perennial cash shortages have dogged Moscow's space programme since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In part they forced Russia to abandon its pioneering Mir space station in March after a record-breaking 15 years.
    Washington is paying the lion's share of the cost of the ISS project, but Moscow, with unrivalled experience of long-term space flight, has designed and built many key parts.
    It sees U.S. opposition to the Tito flight as politically motivated.
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