[FPSPACE] space.com: NASA Leaves Door Ajar For Tito Flight To ISS

[JamesOberg@aol.com]

NASA Leaves Door Ajar For Tito Flight To ISS

By Todd Halvorson
Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
posted: 06:31 pm ET 
27 November 2000     

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The chances of would-be space tourist Dennis Tito 
flying to the International Space Station next year might be slim to none, 
but NASA – at least publicly – isn’t completely slamming the door shut on 
the controversial idea.

"I think we’d have to wait and see how it all works out," former NASA chief 
astronaut Robert Cabana, now the agency’s manager for international space 
station operations, told SPACE.com Tuesday during a news conference at 
Kennedy Space Center.

Tito, a multimillionaire investment manager from California, had hoped to 
become the world’s first space tourist with a flight to the aging Russian 
space station Mir early next year. 

A former NASA engineer, Tito already has made partial payment on a $20 
million ticket sold by the private company MirCorp and RKK Energia, the 
Russian company that operates Mir.

The flight to Mir, however, appears to be "no-go" for launch. 

The Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos) said earlier this month 
that Mir will be sent on a destructive plunge through the atmosphere – and 
into the Pacific Ocean – a week after the station’s 15th anniversary in 
February.

In a Nov. 16 interview with SPACE.com, Tito said he was working on a deal to 
launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a six-day stay at the new 
international station in late April.

Both NASA and Rosaviakosmos officials at the time said the deal was news to 
them.

Cabana, however, left the door slightly ajar.

The topic, he said, is one that NASA officials are not currently negotiating 
with their counterparts at Rosaviakosmos. He added that Rosaviakosmos 
officials have said publicly that they have received no request from MirCorp 
or RKK Energia to fly Tito.


At the same time, though, Cabana noted that NASA and its international 
partners still are in the early stages of a daunting string of critical 
missions aimed at building a 480-ton station – a job many considering the 
most complex engineering project of all time.

"I think right now, at this point in the (station) assembly sequence, we have 
a tremendous job up there, and we want to have professional astronauts doing 
it," the veteran shuttle mission commander said.

Still unclear: Whether NASA ultimately would take issue with any Russian move 
to fly Tito during the crucial early stages of station construction.

"Whether or not we’d object or not, I can’t say at this time," Cabana said. 
"I’d have to wait and see what gets presented. We’ll evaluate it at the 
proper time when the Russians come to us and say this is something they want 
to do, and this is what they have worked out."