WASHINGTON -- Millionaire Dennis Tito has been given a NASA thumbs-up to rocket aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Tito and his two Russian cosmonaut colleagues are preparing for their Soyuz taxi flight to the orbital outpost, set for liftoff on April 28.
Kim Shepherd, a spokesperson for Tito confirmed to SPACE.com that the millionaire did indeed sign a NASA document regarding his trek to the International Space Station. But NASA remains in a seemingly duck-and-cover mode regarding the purported agreement that the space agency has given a go-ahead for the Tito flight.
"We dont have anything new today. There were a couple more telephone conversations among the [ISS] partners, and were making progress. Hopefully, they will complete all the discussions by Tuesday. But Im not sure that will happenthe hope is that we will. And then we will have a statement," said Debra Rahn, a spokeswoman for NASA handling international affairs.
Shepherd said, "he believes he is going and that the Russians will honor his contract."
Tito has purportedly paid upwards of $20 million for the flight, although the number is actually in the range of $18 million, sources confirmed.
According to other contacts close to the Tito flight, the tycoon agreed to sign a NASA waiver making him responsible for anything broken or damaged during his stint in space. Furthermore, he cannot hold NASA accountable in the event the 60-year-old space traveler hurts himself during the mission.
NASA fog
"There is nothing new on this today, that I can tell you for sure," said Rahn.
"The process is continuing. NASA, Rosaviacosmos (the Russian Aviation and Space Agency) and the partners are successfully working this at the working level," said David Drachlis, another NASA spokesman for the space agencys Office of Spaceflight. Tito left for Baikonur from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City just outside of Moscow Monday along with fellow crew members, mission commander Talgat Musabayev and flight engineer Yuri Baturin.
U.S.-Russian task force
On Tuesday, the findings from U.S.-Russian working groups are to be spelled out regarding Titos readiness for the flight. In addition, the way to handle future commercial-class visitation rights is to be addressed, said Philip Cleary, executive secretary for the Task Force on International Space Station Operational Readiness in an earlier interview with SPACE.com.
Veteran astronaut, Thomas Stafford, who worked with the Rosaviacosmos Advisory Expert Council, led by Nikolai Anfimov, leads this independent U.S. task force.
The Stafford-Anfimov groups hammered out, what Cleary said, is a foundation for a process that the ISS partners can follow in the future.
Beyond Tito
Once Tito has made his space sojourn, there is growing speculation that the mogul may well champion an active space tourism enterprise.
"Tito is interested in developing space tourism as a real business," said John Spencer, head of the Los Angeles, California-based Space Tourism Society. Working with the Russians to help grow such an enterprise is the way to do that, he said.
Spencer said theres already one candidate in line ready to follow Titos trail. Movie producer James Cameron is "working hard to be the second guy to go," he said.
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