CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A South African Internet tycoon and two crewmates are at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston this week, training for an upcoming trip to the International Space Station.
And in stark contrast to the icy reception received there last year by U.S. investment manager Dennis Tito -- the world's first fare paying "space tourist" -- Mark Shuttleworth was welcomed with open arms.
"This was all planned well in advance," said JSC spokeswoman Cathy Watson. "They showed up and started training."
Shuttleworth, a 28-year-old who is paying an estimated $20 million for a round-trip to the outpost, is scheduled to launch in late April along with veteran cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.
The trio aim to deliver a new Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the station and then return to Earth eight days later in an identical vehicle that has been serving as an emergency lifeboat at the complex since November.
Designed to stay in orbit six months, Soyuz spacecraft -- which can accommodate up to three cosmonauts -- are swapped out at the station twice a year. Faced with serious budget problems, the Russian space agency sells seats on the Soyuz taxi missions to astronauts from other international space agencies as well as wealthy "space tourists."
Tito, who heads an investment management firm in California, became the center of controversy when he paid the Russians an estimated $18 million to $20 million for a round-trip to the station last year.NASA officials were steadfastly opposed the flight, saying Tito represented a safety risk aboard the outpost and that only fully trained professional astronauts and cosmonauts should be allowed to fly up to the station.
An international flap of sorts then cropped up when Tito and two Russian cosmonaut crewmates -- Soyuz commander Talgat Musabayev and flight engineer Yuri Baturin -- showed up at JSC to train for a station visit that took place in late April and early May 2001.
Meeting in a JSC security building in early March 2001, NASA officials essentially barred Tito from training with his crewmates, saying that the agency officials first needed to discuss administrative and legal arrangements with Tito.
Musabayev and Baturin walked out, refusing to enter training at JSC if their American colleague was going to be left out of the exercises.
Under pressure from Russian higher-ups, the two cosmonauts capitulated the next day and completed a week of U.S. training at JSC. Tito, however, did not.
Shuttleworth and his two crewmates have found that NASA's stance has eased quite a bit.
Gidzenko, Vittori and Shuttleworth already have visited NASA's Mission Control Center and toured a building that houses space station training mock-ups. The three Soyuz crewmates also have attended briefings centered on emergency procedures and the location of fire extinguishers and other safety gear aboard the station.
"The entire taxi crew is receiving training to familiarize them with the U.S. operations and hardware aboard the space station," Watson said.
"Basically, they are focusing on any actions that would be required of station crewmembers in the event of an emergency. That's the main crux of it -- making sure they feel comfortable with knowing where everything is aboard the space station before they go up."
NASA's objections to Tito's flight in part revolved around the fact that international partners involved in the 16-nation station project had yet to agree on specific medical and training criteria for non-professional astronauts and cosmonauts.
The station partners earlier this month adopted new ground rules for crew selection, assignment, training and certification. NASA officials, meanwhile, have said they have no problem with Shuttleworth's flight as long as those criteria are met.
A native of Cape Town, Shuttleworth started up a company that developed secure methods for conducting e-commerce transactions on the World Wide Web. The U.S firm Verisign bought the business last year, and Shuttleworth earned a reported $500 million on the deal.
Not fond of the "space tourist" tag, Shuttleworth plans to conduct a series of science experiments -- the development of which he paid for - during his stay on the station.
He also plans to use the station as an orbital stage for a media campaign aimed at generating student interest in math and science while attracting the youth of Africa to careers in high technology.
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