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Beyond Tito: Space Travelers Wanted (cont.)
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Money matters
Just how much cash Tito shelled out for his ascent into the heavens is an accountant's nightmare.
Various financial numbers are floating around, just as Tito is on the International Space Station. In the ballpark of between $12 million to $18 million is a "close call," said a source privy to the arrangement.
While paying for services supplied by Space Adventures, Tito did not buy the flight from the travel group outright, Anderson said. "He has his own deals with the Russian space agency for the flight and everything else," he said.
Exact details of how Tito's money was spent and any payment schedule remain confidential.
Tito gave sums of money to Energia, Russia's largest space systems manufacturer; a medical institute; a cosmonaut preparation center; to Rosaviakosmos (Russian Aviation and Space Agency); to various providers of lodging, food, insurance and transportation, as well as to his own lawyers.
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| Concept art for a Space Adventures suborbital passenger vehicle. (image: Space Adventures)
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"I'm not even sure Tito can tell you the exact number if he wanted to," said Ortega, "but people are generally using the $20 million number."
Whatever the cost, the 60-year-old divorcee, a former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer turned well-heeled mogul of a financial consulting firm in Santa Monica, California, has paid his dues for the excursion into the ether.
Tito trained hard, showed up on time, doesn't complain about anything and is absolutely disciplined, Ortega said.
"The Russians are proud of him. He's been a model cosmonaut."
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