 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Commercial Astronaut Ready For Final Tests Ahead Of Trip To ISS
The first commercial astronaut, Dennis Tito, who will join the Russian crew of a Soyuz TM, will go through comprehensive tests at the Gagarin cosmonauts training center as part of his preflight training program on April 9-10 before heading to the space station later this month. The crew with which Tito will be launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome for a week-long flight to the ISS includes commander Talgat Musabaev and flight engineer Yuri Baturin. Vasily Tsibliyev, who is deputy chief of the space training section at the Gagarin center, has told Interfax that Tito has prepared himself well for the flight, being physically fit and quite an asset to the crew. However, Tsibliyev said, Tito's flight has not been finalized with NASA yet. But Tsibliyev said he is sure this purely political problem will be resolved within days, as there is too little time left before the launch of the crew. Russia's Aviation Space Agency has told Interfax that NASA specialists have accepted as adequate Tito's ability to pay a short- term visit to the Russian segment of the ISS. However, they believe he is not ready for work according to the rigorous ISS schedule, and for this reason there can be no talk of any fully fledged scientific and technical activity for him on the station. The Russian agency said working groups from the Russian agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency in March negotiated the medical and technical requirements and the training methods for such commercial flights to the ISS by non-professional astronauts. The 60-year-old financier Tito graduated from an aerospace university in the U.S. and for five years dealt with unmanned space programs at NASA by taking part in the program of flights by remote- control interplanetary ships to Mars and Venus. Subsequently, Tito formed his own company, one of the business lines of which was the application of space technologies. Initially, Tito planned to fly with a Russian crew to the Mir space station, which was dumped in March.
Related Links Space Adventures SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
Shadow of Cold War Threatens New Space Station
Paris (AFP) March 24, 2001The era of national space stations may have ended with the death of Mir, but the problems besetting its international successor show just how hard it can be to build cooperation in space.
|
|
| |||||||||
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service. |
Copyright 2001 