SOUTH AFRICAN space tourist Mark Shuttleworth arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Russian mission control said.
The 28-year-old Internet millionaire, accompanied by Russian flight commander Yury Gidzenko and Italian cosmonaut Roberto Vittori, reached the ISS at 0755 GMT, two days after blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Shuttleworth, a computer prodigy who made his fortune at age 24, is paying 20 million dollars for his 10-day journey into space, where he will help carry out experiments involving the AIDS virus and stem cells.
Shuttleworth’s relatives at Russian mission control near Moscow were overjoyed when the Soyuz rocket docked with the station.
His mother Ronelle said she felt ”a great sense of relief,” adding: ”It’s wonderful that it’s successfully docked.”
In South Africa, the amateur cosmonaut’s journey has being acclaimed as an event ranking with Nelson Mandela’s release from prison.
South African President Thabo Mbeki described Shuttleworth as ”a courageous pioneer for South Africa and his continent, Africa.”
Shuttleworth trained for eight months in Russia and one week at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, and will return to Earth with his fellow cosmonauts on May 5.
Their main mission is to replace another Soyuz currently attached to the orbiting space platform, part of a regular twice-annual rotation.
Shuttleworth is the world’s second space tourist after Dennis Tito, a 60-year-old US businessman and former NASA technician who made the same trip last April.- Sapa-AFP