STAR CITY, Moscow region (Interfax) - Dennis Tito, American financier and space tourist, who is due to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of April, is confident the mission will go normally.

"I am sure everything will be fine," he said at a news conference at the Gagarin Cosmonauts' Training center on Wednesday.

Tito said he does not regard the flight as "commercial tourism," but as "personal participation in a space flight that will later open the door to space for people."

He said crew members on ISS will be communicating in English, which everyone knows well. He said he mastered the necessary amount of Russian terminology for emergency situations, among others.

He is due to be launched to ISS on April 28 together with Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.

Mission commander Musabayev described Tito as a very skilled specialist and a good engineer and expressed confidence that "everything will be all right" with their crewmate during the flight.

"Tito is a full-fledged crew member. He is the system operator," he said. During the mission Tito will be in charge of communication systems and carry out all the commands of crew members, Musabayev said.

Tito said during the mission he will make videotapes and take photos, organize negotiations and report on his flight through the Internet. He said he is not making any contingency plans in the event his flight doesn't take place.

The main and standby crews should leave for Baikonur on April 16, where for two days they will "try out" the spaceship. After that they will return to the training center near Moscow for the continuation of training and preparations for scientific experiments. On April 23 they will leave for Baikonur for final preparations for takeoff.