A Soyuz U rocket lifts off April 28, 2001 on the first taxi mission to station Alpha with a three-man crew that includes space tourist Dennis Tito. Click to enlarge.
View from the Soyuz TM-32 carrying Dennis Tito just before docking at station Alpha on April 30, 2001. Click to enlarge.
A new Soyuz spacecraft is seen docked to station Alpha on April 30, 2001. Its taxi crew included space tourist Dennis Tito. Click to enlarge.
U.S. businessman Dennis Tito, the world's first paying space tourist, is seen on Russian television after boarding station Alpha on April 30, 2001. Click to enlarge.
Tito Kicks Back and Enjoys the View By Jessie Halladay FLORIDA TODAY posted: 07:00 am ET 03 May 2001 ET
Dennis Tito, the first tourist on the International Space Station, is spending his days listening to opera and watching the world go by.
"He is just sitting by the portal, and everyone else is just doing their work," said Mike Tito, the son of the California millionaire. "He said that he's very relaxed and very comfortable."
The senior Tito, 60, blasted off with a two-man Russian crew Saturday. After a brief bout with space sickness during his trip to the station, Tito has settled into his role as space tourist, his sons Mike, 26, and Brad, 23, said. Tito paid the Russian space program $20 million to accompany the crew on its mission to deliver a Soyuz emergency escape module to the station.
"You can just hear the smile on his face," said Mike Tito, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif. "Normally, he's fairly serious and conservative and pretty intense and focused. Now he's just giddy."
Tito's sons have been able to talk with their father on unofficial channels with the help of ham radio operators in Hawaii. They are able to get a clear signal to the space station for about 10 minutes each day as it passes over the island state. The station orbits around the Earth every 90 minutes, about 240 miles up.
"It goes well beyond anything that I have ever dreamed," Dennis Tito said Tuesday in a video linkup with Russian mission control, located just north of Moscow. "Living in space is like having a different life, living in a different world."
Tito's sons said the experience of talking to their father in space has been more powerful then they expected.
"For me, this has just been so intense," said Brad Tito of Prescott, Ariz.
Mike Tito described hearing pure joy and exhilaration in his father's voice during a call Monday. But he said that by Tuesday, his father's voice reflected a change in mood.
"It was the sort of thing when you sense that someone's having a life-changing experience," Mike Tito said.
During Tuesday's phone call, Dennis Tito told his sons that seeing the red hues of Africa from above awed him. He had taken five rolls of film by midday Tuesday.
Tito is spending six days aboard the International Space Station. The trip has been criticized by NASA, which argued that Tito's presence on the station would be a safety risk and interrupt the work of the crew. Tito agreed to restrictions for his visit, including a provision that he'll pay for anything he breaks and won't access the U.S. side without an escort.
Tito has been given a tour of the American area, and "everyone has been fantastic," he said. Two American astronauts are aboard the station for an extended stay. Members of the space shuttle Endeavour returned to California on Tuesday after their trip to the station to deliver and install some new equipment.
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