A Soyuz rocket is erected at its Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad on April 26, 2001 in preparation for the first station taxi mission, which will include Dennis Tito. Click to enlarge.
Dennis Tito, left, and cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev, center, and Yuri Baturin in the SoyuzTM training capsule in Star City.
Dennis Tito trains with a cosmonaut at the Star City training center outside of Moscow.
MOSCOW (Interfax) - Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, has received an insurance policy from the Russian Avikos insurance company, a company press release says
MOSCOW (Interfax) --
Dennis Tito, the first space tourist, received an insurance policy from the Russian Avikos insurance company, a company press release said.
Insurance policies were also handed to his
two crewmates, Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin, on Friday immediately after the government commission okayed them for the first visitor mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
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"This is the first time that an insurance policy of a Russian company has been given to a foreign cosmonaut," Avikos executive director Ilya Kabachnik said, adding that "the development of a new market segment has begun -- the insurance of space tourists."
The policy was given to Tito as a space tourist in addition to the insurance he took out privately with a non-Russian insurance company.
His Avicos insurance premium is comparable to that of the other crew members and amounts to several hundred thousand dollars.
In this case, Tito is insured differently than Musabayev and Baturin, who are insured by the Energia rocket and space corporation.
The Soyuz U launch vehicle is currently scheduled to lift off with a Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft on Saturday, but problems aboard the International Space Station
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