Space station officials approve tourist visit

NASA says visit will cause astronauts to halt work

Dennis Tito

(CNN) -- The group of countries building the international space station has given the official go-ahead for a visit by millionaire tourist Dennis Tito, NASA said Tuesday.

Tito, a former NASA rocket scientist who made a fortune in investments, has paid Russia $20 million to ride aboard a Soyuz craft to space station Alpha. He is scheduled to spend six days aboard the outpost.

Tito and his fellow crew members, Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin, are due to blast off Saturday from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

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The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board approved the exemption Tuesday, NASA said.

NASA had Tito sign a legal document, pledging neither he nor his heirs would sue the U.S. space agency if anything goes wrong in space, sources told Time magazine last week. The agreement also calls for Tito to pay for anything he breaks.

NASA opposed visit

The U.S. had tried to stop Tito's trip, claiming that an untrained tourist would present a danger aboard the space station. But the cash-strapped Russians insisted, and NASA eventually conceded it could not dictate Russia's actions, sources told Time.

A NASA task force, headed by former astronaut Col. Thomas Stafford, issued a report Tuesday that said Tito's presence on the mission requires a significant modification of crew work on the space station because of safety concerns.

"There is no doubt that this will have an impact on the activity up there," Stafford said in a briefing.

A number of experiments will be shut down or not performed, Stafford said. The ISS crew will also halt work on the new mechanical arm installed on the space station this week.

These changes were required, said Stafford, as "risk-mitigating actions" because of Tito's presence.

Tito denied free access to U.S. portion

The task force recommended that Tito not be allowed aboard the American portion of the space station without an astronaut escort.

The group also called for Tito to sleep in or near the Russian spacecraft as a precautionary measure in the event of an emergency when he is asleep.

Space station Alpha

Michael A. Greenfield, a NASA member of the Stafford task force, said members of the group were very concerned about the lack of training given to Tito and his ability to respond appropriately in an emergency. Greenfield said Tito received less training than what the Russians provided two other nonprofessional space fliers, a journalist and a food expert, that took trips earlier on Russian spacecraft.

Tito originally was scheduled to fly to the Russian space station Mir. After that orbiting lab was decommissioned and eventually dumped in the Pacific Ocean, Tito's ticket to space was shifted to the ISS.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Report: NASA agrees to let tourist go into space
April 20, 2001
Shuttle lifts off on mission to 'arm' Alpha
April 19, 2001
Alpha crew makes room for guests
April 18, 2001

NASA
International space station Alpha

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