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Dennis Tito: A passion for space
LONDON (CNN) - Brad Tito still recalls his disbelief when his dad, Dennis, first mooted the idea of hitching a ride to the heavens. "I think I was the first person he told, about 10 years ago or so. He said something like 'I really want to go to space' and I said, 'Great Dad, is this a middle life crisis we are talking about, or what?'" As Brad Tito -- and other friends and relatives -- set off this week to attend the imminent blast-off of the world's first fare-paying space tourist at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the awe remained.
"It just blows my mind," he said. The trip is no less of an epiphany for Dennis Tito himself. The 60-year-old rocket engineer-cum-investment manager from California has been passionate about space since a teenage sighting of the Soviet-built Soyuz spacecraft streaking across the sky in 1957, according to spaceref.com. In the years since, Tito has seen his cosmic quest survive the collapse of the Soviet Union; the fiery demise of his initial would-be guesthouse in orbit, the Mir space station; and a transatlantic tussle between Russian and American space chiefs over the advisability of letting a space tourist tag along. Tito has ponied up some $20 million for the privilege of hitching a no-frills ride in a cramped Soyuz spacecraft to Mir's successor, the $95 billion International Space Station, Alpha, a 16-nation project led by Russia and the United States. Cost 'not the major issue'The price included about $1 million earmarked for Tito to train at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Star City, Russia, according to space.com. Yet for Tito, the price tag pales next to the payback he expects to receive in terms of spiritual and intellectual fulfillment. "The cost was not the major issue," he told CNN. "I mean we all know you can't take it with you. I'm 60 years old, here is a chance to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience, an experience that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I think that is a fantastic deal." The rocket fare is what Tito originally agreed to pay Russian space officials. That was back in 1991, when the then-Soviet Space Agency was hawking tickets to the space station to anyone who might be able to cough up enough cash. While negotiations were still ongoing, the Soviet Union collapsed, and, with it, Tito's short-term hopes of space travel also appeared to implode. A subsequent Russian decision -- dictated by a cash crunch -- to decommission Mir and send it crashing down to a watery grave in the Pacific, appeared to deal a further blow to Tito. But the Russians, intent on honouring their earlier pledge, offered Tito a ticket to Alpha - a proposal to which NASA objected on the grounds that a cosmic neophyte - no matter how rich or passionate about the mission -- could cause havoc in the state-of-the-art space station. Strict conditionsUnder the terms of his agreement with NASA, Tito is financially responsible for any equipment he may damage or break during his space trip. He is barred from entering any U.S.-owned sections of the space station, unless escorted. Tito acknowledges the perils inherent in his voyage, but says they are outweighed by the pluses. "I understand the risks," Tito told CNN. "There are some risks, but the benefit for me and what I consider the ultimate dream and experience, the ultimate human adventure, is something I am about to undertake." He will not be the first civilian, however, to slip the bonds of earth's gravity. He has been preceded in space by a Japanese journalist who paid a cosmic courtesy visit to Mir and a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family. Tito is the first person to hurtle into orbit purely for reasons of cosmic wanderlust. He describes his guest-cosmonaut role in the six-day planned mission to Alpha as the culmination of a lifelong dream that he has never allowed to be dampened by an insider's knowledge of the perils such a voyage entails. Tito may be a space buff, but he is no space bozo. As a young man in his 20s, he aspired to become an astronaut. But when it became apparent NASA didn't think he had all the right stuff for the job, Tito worked instead as an engineer in NASA's jet propulsion lab, in Pasadena, California, starting in 1964. While there, according to space.com, he helped developed trajectories for the Mariner 4 mission to Mars and the Mariner 5 mission to Venus. He later parlayed a knack for investing with mathematical formulas into an investment management company, Wilshire Associates. Tito has amassed a personal fortune estimated at between $200 million and $300 million. Friends of Tito say he displays a childlike exuberance for life. "I've known Dennis for 30 years, and he's never grown up," Mayor Richard Riordan of Los Angeles, Tito's friend, told the New York Times. "He just is always looking for exciting things to do. I'm envious. If you've got the money he's got, why not do something like this? He's just going to have a ball. Everybody's going to be talking about this for years to come." Nor is Tito holding a grudge against NASA for its objections to his flight. He puts it all down to what he calls "professional jealousy." "We all like to think we're experts, and if somebody comes in that doesn't have exactly the same training that we do, we don't think they're qualified. "I'm not faulting the astronauts for having a special feeling about their qualifications, because they are highly qualified and they are highly competent. I think it's just a matter of accepting that space should really be for everyone." --CNN correspondents Matthew Chase and Miles O'Brien contributed to this report The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
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