Something wonderful happened during the week of 28 April, to 6 May 2001. For the first time ever a civilian, not in the employ of any space agency, bought a ride on a spaceship. His name is Dennis Tito. He was 60 years old at the time, a self made millionaire, and former NASA employee. He spent a quiet week aboard the International Space Station, peering out the windows, taking snap shots, listening to opera CDs, and helping the crew as he could.

Tito occupied the third seat in Soyuz TM-32 atop the reliable Starsem booster, on a "taxi flight" to deliver a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to ISS. Their spacecraft lifted off at 2:37 AM CDT (7:37 GMT) on 28 April 2001. They blasted away from the exact same launch pad at Baykonur Cosmodrome as used by Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961 to execute the First Manned space Flight.

Space Shuttle STS-100 / Endeavour had undocked from ISS on 29 April for its return home, after spending a week at the station delivering the new Canadarm2. Some 50 hours after launch, TM-32 docked at the nadir port of the ISS Zarya module at 4:57 AM CDT (9:57 GMT) on 30 April. The hatches between the spacecraft were opened at 5:30 AM CDT (10:30 GMT). The taxi crew were welcomed aboard by the ISS Expedition Two Crew, and all were swiftly bombarded with questions from media reporters gathered in TsUP (Russian Mission Control) outside Moscow. It was then that Russian flight controllers revealed that Mr. Tito had been experiencing sickness during his first days in microgravity.

After a week of joint operations the two crews said do svedanya and parted ways, with hatches between Soyuz TM-31 (the old lifeboat craft) and ISSy being resealed. Soyuz undocked from the station on 5 May at 9:21 CDT (2:21 GMT 6 May). The spacecraft deorbited and landed safely in Kazakhstan at 12:41 AM CDT (5:41 GMT) on 6 May. Thus ended the world's first "space vacation".

There were a number of disparaging comments on the whole concept of a civilian in space, and a generally negative attitude by NASA officials. Tito's Russian shipmates however, were satisfied that he is a good spaceman. "Dennis is no nuisance. In fact, he is trying to help us. We have to explain to him some things which cannot be learned on Earth as we would do to any other novice Cosmonaut. But basically, Dennis has dealt smoothly with both crews." said Talgat Musabayev.

HAVING FUN ON ORBIT

L. to R. Yuri Usachev (ISS Exp. 2 Cmdr.), Dennis Tito, Talgat Musabayev.

Mr. Tito learning the finer points of zero G with his shipmates aboard the International Space Station.

Mr. Tito, however, was Denied Training on the US parts of the station. He was to be forbidden to train with his Cosmonaut crewmates by NASA. Tito was instead assigned a "civilian style tour" of public NASA facilities at the Johnson Space Center. The two Cosmonauts refused to take the training until Tito was included. In response, Talgat Musabayev, the commander of Tito's flight,
"spoke for us as being all for one and one for all, and united, with the backing of his superiors", Tito said.

NASA was forced to back down from this rigid position, and join his crew being familiarized with the US segment. So Mr. Tito WAS exposed to training on the US portion of ISSy. It is also a fact that Mr. Tito has had eight full months of rigorous Cosmonaut training at Star City in Russia. This is not to be taken lightly. Russian trianing is very thorough.

As a matter of fact, this light schedule was not adopted just because of Dennis Tito's visit to the space station. Apparently, it was planned all along. According to NASA spokesman David Drachlis, US crew members had no major activities planned for the week of Tito's visit in any case.

Speaking in his own defence, Mr. Tito said the ISS's triple computer failure had caused the slow-down of the pace of work being done. He also pointed out that the US segment was at the other end of the station from where he was staying in the Service, or Zvezda Module (Main crew quarters & life support). He expressed disbelief that his presence was interfering with the station program. He even helped out in the galley, preparing meals for his crewmates, freeing them for more important activities.

Russian official Viktor Blagov made this statement: "Everyone is getting on with their work and there have been no complaints from on board. Tito's presence, according to our data, has in no way harmed the work of either the permanent or visiting crew. Tito is following his own independent program......of course when a visiting crew arrives, schedules must change, but this is regardless of whether Tito is there or not. Programs are carried out without damage, and scientific experiments are carried out."

So in the final analysis, all the huffing and puffing on the part of the NASA administation is nothing more than a tantrum over who gets to be top boss. This is all about deciding who gets access to space, and who makes those decisions, not about protecting an investment. Power politics as usual.

There has been speculation in UFO circles that Mr. Tito might have seen, and taken pictures of, something hitherto unacknowledged in space. If so, perhaps he might share such photographs, and tell the world what he had seen. Sadly, that is not likely to happen. Prior to being accepted by the Russian Space Agency for this flight, Mr. Tito signed papers putting himself under orders. This act effectively silenced him from making any unapproved statements when he returned to Earth.

Dennis Tito, and his intrepid crewmates Talgat Musabayev, and Yuri Baturin, landed in the Soyuz TM-31 descent module on 6 May 2001. It was a soft landing in the steppe of Kasakhstan. The history making holiday/spaceflight of the former Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist was over. He had a great time, and caused none of the disruption predicted by the naysayers at NASA. And...

He paved the way for all the rest of us.

Thank you Mr. Tito

***

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

© 2005 Jeff Challender