Russian Rocket Lifts Off Carrying Space Tourist

BY ANNA DOLGOV Associated Press Writer
BAIKONUR, Kazakstan 

With a thunderous rumble, a Russian rocket lifted off Saturday from the barren steppes of Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the international space station.

They'll have to wait to dock with the station, however, until NASA unparks the space shuttle Endeavour to avoid a potential traffic jam.

The rocket rose into the blue skies above the Baikonur cosmodrome, blasting out red flames, and soon disappeared above the sunlit expanses of Kazakstan, Nine minutes later, flight controllers announced that the craft had reached orbit. Tito's girlfriend, Dawn Abraham, who had cheered him on during the preparations for the flight, collapsed into tears. "It's surreal," she said. "I just want to know if he is OK."

It will be at least two days before the Soyuz spaceship reaches the space station, and possibly three if Endeavour needs to extend its stay. Computer problems aboard the station have kept Endeavour there longer than expected by preventing astronauts from wrapping up work with a critical robot arm.

NASA overcame the computer problems Saturday, allowing the robot arm operation to be carried out. Their work helped clear the way for the shuttle to undock Sunday, which would allow the Soyuz to arrive on Monday as planned.

Docking the Soyuz while the U.S. shuttle is still there would make the operation more difficult and potentially dangerous, and U.S. space officials had urged Russia to postpone the flight.

The final hurdles were resolved only on the eve of the Soyuz launch. Russia had promised to put the Soyuz in a holding position for an extra day if the shuttle needed to stay until Monday.

"I must say that to our pint satisfaction consensus has been found," said Russian Aerospace Agency chief Yuri Koptev. "And maybe this flight opens a really new page in space exploration, when not only professional cosmonauts but also so-called amateurs will re able to travel to space."

The crew is expected to be at the station for six days before returning to Earth. Tito's 26-year-old son, Mike, also watched the launch, awestruck. "Wow, what an adrenalin rush," he said. 'If I had a chance, I would definitely do this."

Before the countdown, the dark hull of the rocket turned white with a coating of ice, as liquid oxygen used to bum the rocket fuel was pumped in. A television camera inside the spaceship showed Tito, 60, in a white spacesuit decorated with an American flag on the shoulder, grinning broadly.

A ground controller asked in Russian-accented English, "How do you feel, Dennis?" "Khorosho," he replied in Russian -"Great," 

NASA's chief Russia envoy Michael Baker, who watched the blastoff at Baikonur, said the Soyuz spaceship would dock only after the shuttle's departure. "They won't dock with shuttle there. There's no doubt about this," Baker: said. The delayed docking would present no danger to the crew, although it would use up more of the Soyuz' fuel, he said.


International Space Station

The eleventh-hour dispute over the timing of the blastoff followed a long wrangle over whether a tourist should go to the space station at all. NASA urged postponement of Tito's ride until another f1ight, insisting he didn't have enough training and could jeopardize the work of. the station's crew. But Russian officials said that Tito, a former rocket engineer who is paying up to $20 million for the trip, received the equivalent of a professional cosmonaut's training.

Source: Arizona Daily Sun, Sunday, April 29, 2001

Space tourist Tito checks in at the 'Hotel Alpha'

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