Star City (AFP) June 19, 2000 – US businessman Dennis Tito is set to become the first “space tourist” aboard the Russian space station Mir, signing an outline accord Monday to fly to the ageing orbiter early next year.
Tito, 59, a former aerospace engineer who now runs an investment firm, said he was ready to finance the entire mission, estimated at around 20 million dollars.
MirCorp chief Jeffrey Manber said Tito would undergo medical tests at Star City, the Russian space flight training centre near Moscow, and lift off for Mir in 2001 if the tests proved positive.
MirCorp was set up with a US venture capital outfit and Energiya, the space station’s operator, to find funds to keep the Soviet-era Mir in orbit.
Mir had been due to come down to Earth this summer because Russia’s cash-strapped space programme was unable to fund both Mir and its share of work on the multi-billion dollar International Space Station.
