MARK Shuttleworth’s successful flight to the International Space Station (ISS) could pave the way for a whole generation of wealthy amateur cosmonauts, a trend more than welcome for Russia’s cash-strapped space agency.
The young South African, the world’s second space tourist after 60-year-old US businessman Dennis Tito, returned to Earth on Sunday having completed a 10-day space odyssey — including eight days on the ISS — along with two professionals, Russian flight commander Yury Gidzenko and Italian engineer Roberto Vittori.
Shuttleworth and Tito have effectively established that given proper physical and technical training, virtually anyone able to fork out $20-million — the standard fee asked by Russia’s space agency — can blast off and head into space.
Shuttleworth trained for just eight months in Russia and one week at Nasa?s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, a much shorter period than is devoted to preparing professional astronauts.
But, according to Russian space officials who monitored his journey, it proved more than sufficient.
Shuttleworth was “sure of himself and cheerful in orbit,” said one of the Russian space agency’s medical experts.
Gidzenko, who spent 10 days in space with the Internet millionaire, concurred.
“Mark’s flight proves that if someone is dreaming of travelling in space and can afford it, then why shouldn’t they go for it ?” he said.
In fact it was the professional astronaut and airforce officer Vittori who appeared to have the greatest difficulty adapting to space conditions.
Vittori said he had had a hard time coping with zero gravity and never managed to sleep as well onboard the ISS as on earth.
With the “tourist” flights apparently going so well, Russian officials have announced plans to tap into this welcome source of much-needed funds.
The resources allocated to Russia’s space programme “are a quarter of what is needed,” said Yury Semyonov, head of Russia’s space construction firm RKK Energiya.
The Russian Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) is therefore on the lookout for would-be space tourists willing to cough up $20-million for a visit to the ISS next October and the following April.
The next amateur with stars in his eyes could well be US teen idol Lance Bass from boy band ‘N Sync, who spent a weekend in Moscow in March taking preliminary tests to see if he can become the first pop star in space.
If Bass makes it, he will owe it to the fact that US space agency Nasa, Russia’s main partner on the ISS program, has apparently dropped the strong reservations it once had regarding space tourists.
When Tito set about becoming the first space tourist in April-May last year, Nasa furiously opposed his trip, saying the presence of an amateur aboard the ISS would endanger the permanent crew.
It went so far as to bar him from entering the US section of the orbiting platform.
Tito went on to address the US Congress on what he saw as the benefits of space tourism, calling on Washington to seek ways of involving the general public more in the space adventure.
The US agency finally greenlighted Shuttleworth’s visit and allowed him to move around the ISS freely.
Semyonov acknowledged the change of tack, arguing that the Russian space agency had “overcome many hurdles, thanks to a turnaround in the way many people view space tourism.” – AFP