A 60-year-old communications millionaire and the world’s third space tourist clattered back down on to the barren steppes of Kazakhstan early on Tuesday morning after an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.
Gregory Olsen and a two-man Russian-American crew appeared a little shaken when their small Soyuz capsule was opened by rescuers. The American astronaut John Phillips slipped in and out of consciousness after the three and a half-hour, breakneck descent, and needed smelling salts to bring him round.
Olsen, who trained for two years for the $20-million Russian-organised trip, seemed to have been the least affected by the 400km descent: ”I feel great,” he told Associated Press, in both English and Russian, which he learned as part of his training. ”I want to have a good steak, a red wine and, of course, a hot shower,” he added.
Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency, told Associated Press: ”This shows us how to fight for your dreams. [Olsen] fought, he won, he passed the entire flight, all the preparations to become an astronaut, superbly”. Perminov was referring to how Olsen’s trip had been delayed due to a health problem.
While on board, Olsen helped out with European Space Agency experiments into the body’s reaction to low gravity, and the possible causes of nausea and lower-back pain. The Russian Space Agency, for which trips into space for private citizens have proved to be a lucrative spin-off, said that the Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto is now scheduled to become the fourth space tourist. – Guardian Unlimited Â