First Space Tourist Readies For Flight

S T A R C I T Y, Russia, Nov. 25, 2000 -- For years, people have talked of

traveling to space as tourists, but it has only been talk—until

now.

Dennis Tito, who started dreaming of space flight when hewatched Sputnik’s launch as a teen-ager, who worked as a rocketscientist charting paths to planets, then switched to investing andbecame a multimillionaire, has a ticket to ride.

The fit, 60-year-old Californian has left his 30,000-square-footPacific Palisades mansion for two rooms in the Star City cosmonauttraining center in Russia to prepare for the launch, which couldcome early next year.

He has deposited millions of dollars—each one worth 28 rubles- in an escrow account, to be released to the cash-strapped Russianspace authorities the moment he is launched as the first spacetourist, but not a millisecond before.

That’s all in his contract, his ticket.

“The key is launch,” Tito said recently during an interview inStar City. “All they have to do is light the rockets and theescrow opens up and they get all the money. And it’s a lot ofmoney. ... There’s a real strong incentive, I think, for theRussians to fly me.”

Which Space Station?

But the question remains: Which space station will he fly to?

There’s a chance, however slight, it will be aturn-out-the-lights mission in January to the Russian SpaceAgency’s abandoned Mir. A suicide dive is planned for February, anda crew will be sent beforehand only if a problem in preparationsarises.

More likely it will be a taxi ride to the newly occupied,NASA-led international space station Alpha. In April, the attachedSoyuz capsule, the crew’s lifeboat, needs to be replaced.

Tito says the pendulum has swung toward Alpha in light ofRussia’s recent decision to ditch Mir. Either way, if he hasn’tleft Earth by June 30, 2001, the deal’s off. That’s also in hiscontract with the Russians.

“I just hope this doesn’t become some kind of a political messbetween the two agencies or the two countries,” he says with asigh at the end of the training day, weary from the uncertaintysurrounding his promised mission, not from the work.

Clash of Titans

A clash of titans, though, may be coming.

Yuri Semyonov, president and general designer of Russia’s RSCEnergia corporation, says he’s committed to honoring Tito’scontract.

He doesn’t need NASA’s or anyone else’s permission to launchTito on a Soyuz capsule to Mir, or to the international spacestation if Mir can be decommissioned by autopilot, Semyonov sayshuffily.

NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin finds the whole matterdistasteful. It’s wrong, he contends, to peddle spaceship seats torich guys looking for fun.

“I can’t tell the Russians what to do. They’re a sovereignprogram, a sovereign nation,” Goldin says. “But we do have a partto play in it because the lives, the safety of the astronauts areat stake,” along with the future of the space station.

The NASA chief worries that Tito’s deal could spur ticket demandfor the international space station. And yet, he says, spare seatson Russian Soyuz rockets should go to European or Japaneseastronauts who have been training for years, not to wealthy“spectators.”

Not Just a Spectator

The would-be space tourist insists he’s more than a spectator.

The oldest child of working-class Italian immigrants becamesmitten with space the same way many did: with the launch of thefirst space satellite, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik, in 1957.

“That opened the Space Age,” he says, his eyes bright with therecollection. “To have experienced the excitement of seeing thefirst Earth satellite and then at the same time experiencing thefear that the Soviet Union was way ahead of us in technology ...what I saw when I was 17 led me to enroll in aerospace engineeringthe next year.”

Tito ended up at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,Calif., in 1964, plotting the flight paths for NASA’s Marinerprobes to Mars and Venus. During that time, he once called thespace agency to get information on becoming an astronaut, but itnever went beyond that single phone call.

Eventually, he put his dream on hold and changed course.

Quitting his $15,000-a-year lab job to start his own investmentbusiness, he made his first million before he turned 40. His firm,Wilshire Associates, is a powerhouse that manages more than $10billion in assets. At his quarters in the cosmonaut complex, acomputer chirps constantly with e-mail messages from his homeoffice in Santa Monica, Calif.

Childhood Dream of Space

Even as he built his business, though, the idea of space travelremained with him.

In 1991, the now wealthy Tito, in Russia on business, foundhimself checking out the “guest cosmonaut” program, under which aJapanese TV reporter and a British chemist flew to Mir for a price.Tito was interested in participating, but the Soviet Union’scollapse prevented that from happening.

Then, earlier this year, he got a call from MirCorp, theAmsterdam-based firm trying to raise money to keep the spacestation going, with commercial applications in mind. MirCorpeventually signed “Survivor” producer Mark Burnett for a“Destination Mir” series. And “Titanic” director James Cameronexpressed interest in a trip to Mir, but did not put down anymoney.

Would Tito be interested, MirCorp wondered, in flying to aresurrected Mir?

In April, MirCorp’s bigwigs went to his home in the PacificPalisades area of Los Angeles and, within 15 minutes, a deal wasclinched.

Tito, who’s divorced with three children in their 20s, won’t sayhow much he’s paying for the one- to two-week space adventure.MirCorp’s list price: $20 million.

Hardships of Preparation

Recalling the deal as he sits amid the Russian woods, more thanan hour’s drive from Moscow, Tito says his willingness to undergomonths of rigorous training—he’s taking a break to go home forThanksgiving—shows his serious intentions.

Day after day at Star City, morning until evening is spentcramming. Besides classwork, Tito has endured eight times the forceof Earth’s gravity in the centrifuge and spent considerable time ina Soyuz mock-up.

“It’s not a prison or anything,” Tito said in early November,sitting in his Star City apartment. “But it’s a far cry fromsomeone of my living standard would have.”

How many rooms are there in his Pacific Palisades home, bycomparison?

“I never even counted them,” he says. “It’s 30,000 squarefeet on nine acres with a guest house and a pool house, a runningtrack. It’s probably one of the biggest houses in the city.”

Simply Seeking Fulfillment

Trappings of success aside, Tito insists he’s not “just awealthy guy who’s looking for kicks.”

He stresses: “I’m not crazy. ... I haven’t let the success goto my head. I’ve let the success say: Look, let’s take my life inmore places. Let’s make life more fulfilling.”

To be launched from the same pad where Sputnik soared would beespecially gratifying, since it’s Sputnik that motivated him 43years ago.

“I could just see myself lying on my deathbed at 90,” Titosays, “and saying, ‘Yeah, what a life. You did it all. You madethe full circle.’ “

There’s nothing wrong with civilians shelling out cash for theopportunity to fly to space, says Alex Roland, a former NASAhistorian who teaches at Duke University. But to Mir—scene of anintense fire and near-catastrophic collision in 1997 anduninhabited since June? (The fate of Mir appears to be sealed:Russia’s cabinet decided on Nov. 16 to abandon the space stationand let it fall into the Pacific in February on its 15th birthday.)

“To think people would line up to pay big money to get on theTitanic like that ...,” Roland says. Still, he called Tito’s “anopen contract among consenting adults.”

NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox, who served as the backup forinternational space station skipper Bill Shepherd, considers itmoney well spent.

“It’s not like the money is just going to waste,” Bowersoxnotes. “That money is going to go into the space program and it’sgoing to pay for people over here, it’s going to pay salaries. ...He’s supporting the program and that helps us.”

Some at NASA worry about Tito’s physical ability to handle aspace trip. If anything goes wrong, the safety of the entire crewcould be jeopardized by this cosmonaut-come-lately.

“He meets the parameters,” Semyonov responds, noting Tito hadto pass all the cosmonaut medical tests.

Short, slim and bald, Tito looks years younger than 60. Evidenceof a healthy lifestyle is everywhere in his Star City apartment:worn running shoes, whole-wheat pasta, organic tomato sauce, soyprotein.

He says he was inspired by John Glenn’s return to orbit at age77 in 1998: “If he wasn’t too old, I’m not too old.” Yet hequickly notes, “I’ll be the oldest person to fly the first time.The oldest rookie.”

Tito insists he won’t be shattered if the Russians break theircontract and he never makes it to space.

“The way I look at it is, every day counts and every day I’mlearning about manned space flight. I’m learning about systems. I’mnot sacrificing anything in terms of my business. My business istrucking along.

“I’m learning how to be alone. I’m learning how a differentsociety works. I’m meeting astronauts and cosmonauts. I’m living ina spartan environment and learning that I don’t need all thiswealth and if I didn’t have this wealth, I’d still be happy.

“Oh, I’ve already won.”