After days of wrangling over details, the five partners in the International Space Station 鈥済ranted an exemption鈥 late on Tuesday so space tourist Dennis Tito could drop in for a $20 million visit.
The exemption allows the Russian Space Agency to go ahead with plans to launch Tito, a 60-year old California businessman. He will fly on an eight-day Soyuz taxi mission with two Russian cosmonauts on April 28. NASA and the European Space Agency had objected, citing safety concerns, but eventually conceded.
鈥淲e have been through a very involved process with all the partners over the past several weeks, that have involved a number of discussions and changes of plans on our part and on the Russians,鈥 said Mike Hawes, NASA deputy associate administrator for the space station.
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Tito had pressed for the April launch date after Russia ditched his original destination, its old Mir space station. He has agreed to abide by flight rules, absolve the station partners of liability if anything goes wrong, and promised to pay for anything he breaks.
Special escort
The two cosmonauts and the space station鈥檚 鈥渆xpedition鈥 crew will be busy keeping Tito from harm. 鈥淗e will be escorted by one of the expedition crew in non-Russian segments鈥 of the station, Hawes said, and 鈥渨ill receive a fairly significant safety briefing.鈥
Other planned activities, such as detailed checkout of the new manipulator arm, will take a back seat 鈥渦ntil we understand the situation on orbit鈥 with Tito present, Hawes added.
NASA denies that yielding on Tito鈥檚 visit is humiliating. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good solution given all the issues that we鈥檝e had to deal with, given the reality of the Russian financial situation, and the contract they鈥檝e signed,鈥 said Hawes.
Russia had signalled on Monday that they would not back down. 鈥淭ito will travel to the space station no matter what,鈥 RSA spokesman Sergei Gorbunov said.
After Tito completes his flight, NASA and the other partners will meet to hammer out an agreement covering future commercial missions by the end of June. 鈥淚 think tourists in space are inevitable; I wish we had a little more time to work with this case,鈥 said Hawes.
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