New Baby, NASA Praise for Cameron

May 2 -- Mega-director James Cameron may be the king of the world, but he's not the king of the universe. Cameron, who has strongly expressed a desire to go into space, has been praised by NASA for his patience as the space agency scurries to form guidelines for allowing civilians to pay their way onto space vessels.

NASA chief Daniel Goldin exalted the Titanic director's willingness to wait until those policies are established, citing California millionaire Dennis Tito's recent foray onto a Russian space station as a need for caution.

"I'd like to make a contrast here, because there is an American patriot who understood how to do this," Goldin told members of a U.S. House of Representatives panel on space and aeronautics. "That gentleman's name is James Cameron, who approached me some six months ago and asked about going to space."

Tito paid a rumored $20 million fee to go to a Russian space station, becoming the first official tourist in space. According to Goldin, the incident caused NASA workers a lot of undue stress.

Goldin applauded Cameron, saying that the director told him, "I'm going to wait until the partners work things out, and then at an appropriate time, when the [operations] tempo isn't high, maybe it's appropriate to go."

Cameron will have plenty to do while he's waiting for the green light. He and his fifth wife, actress Suzy Amis, welcomed a new baby four weeks ago, according to Access Hollywood. Details about the child's name, sex, and weight were not released.

Cameron has a daughter, Josephine, with ex-wife Linda Hamilton.

Reuters contributed to this story.