NASA hasn’t changed much or has it?
Contrary to popular belief, space tourism is not new. In fact, it’s over twenty years old. On April 28th, 2001, sixty-year-old Dennis Tito launched into space and stayed onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for a week. He became the first space tourist and the 415th person ever to go to space.
“It was eight days of euphoria,” Tito recalls on his time in space.
However, his space flight was anything but smooth sailing. From flight delays to NASA’s explicit disapproval of the mission, Dennis Tito’s journey to space almost didn’t go forward at all.
Here’s what happened:
A Millionaire Space Lover
It’s probably no surprise that Dennis Tito got his ticket to space by paying millions of dollars. Twenty million, to be more specific. However, Tito has more scientific credentials and knowledge of space than the average citizen.
Dennis Tito was born on August 8, 1940 in Queens, New York. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Science in Astronautics and Aeronautics with a Master of Science degree in Engineering Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Hartford, Connecticut. Tito also previously worked as a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for five years.
Tito gets his massive fortune from his investment management firm, Wilshire Associates, which he founded in 1971 in Santa Monica, California. His company utilizes mathematical tools to analyze market risks, skills that Tito first developed while working at JPL to determine a spacecraft’s path. Wilshire Associates has clients from all over the world, and this international success represents assets of seventy-one billion dollars.
Tito dreamed of going to space as a child. And though he changed career paths from aerospace engineering to investment management, he remained fascinated by space and hoped to one day travel there.
Going to space was a goal Tito set back in 1961, the year that the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel to space. He told CNN, “I was fascinated by it as a young person.” Space flight for Tito wasn’t about chasing fame or titles, it was about the experience of going to and living in space.
The Controversial Space Flight
In 1991, Tito started talking to the Soviet Union about joining a space mission as a ticket-paying citizen. At this point though, right before the collapse of the USSR, nothing came of it.
But a few years later, he continued to propose the possibility of going into space.
Tito told CNN, “In the ’90s, the Russians were really hurting for funding of this space program and the bottom line was, I figured out, ‘Huh, maybe I could get involved with the Russians.’”
At the end of the 1990s, the Russian company MirCorp, a private venture for the space station Mir, and the American company Space Adventures Ltd. struck a deal. In order to raise money to maintain the aging space station Mir, MirCorp decided to sell a trip to space and to Mir. And Tito became the first paying passenger.
Originally, the plan was for Dennis Tito to fly to the Russian Soviet space station, Mir. Mir was a space station that operated from 1986 to 2001 in low Earth orbit, similar to the International Space Station (ISS). However, just before Tito planned to go on his trip, Mir was deorbited so Tito’s mission was delayed and diverted to the ISS. At this time, the ISS looked different than we know it today, as it had just begun assembly operation in November of 1998.
NASA’s Disapproval of the Mission
Tito’s plan to go to space was met with some controversy though, especially by NASA and space agencies from Canada, Europe, and Japan. In fact, they “recommended against” Tito’s mission.
While officials at NASA said they didn’t object to paying customers aboard the ISS in principle, they didn’t think that Tito would be prepared to go to space by April.
In a press release from March 19, 2001, NASA said:
“During this period, the presence of a nonprofessional crewmember who is untrained on all critical station systems, is unable to respond and assist in any contingency situation which may arise, and who would require constant supervision, would add a significant burden to the Expedition and detract from the overall safety of the International Space Station.”
In short, they felt that Tito needed several weeks of training at NASA facilities before he could go to the ISS. And that April was too busy a time of complex and crucial station operations to invite a non-astronaut onboard.
However, Dennis Tito also believes that his age was another reason for NASA’s hesitancy. At sixty years old, a person is at risk of complications such as a heart attack or stroke.
Tito acknowledged that his mission was a gamble for NASA if anything were to go fatally wrong. He said, “What are you going to do, transport a corpse back to Earth? That would be very embarrassing for them, and traumatic.”
Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, told SPACE.com. that NASA “put up everything that they could throw in the way to make it not happen” so that Tito’s flight wouldn’t go on.
Remembering a Civilian Disaster
NASA’s concern about the safety of Tito’s mission was not unfounded.
In August 1984, President Reagan announced that the first space flight participant on the space shuttle would be a teacher. NASA received more than 10,000 applications for their Teacher in Space Opportunity. After rigorous interviews and medical screenings, the winner, New Hampshire middle school teacher S. Christa McAuliffe was chosen. McAuliffe went through training with the rest of the crew to get her ready for the mission.
When the Challenger launched on January 28, 1986 with the astronaut crew, and McAuliffe, all seemed to go according to plan. The space shuttle cleared the launch tower and all the protocols appeared to proceed normally. And then, 73 seconds after liftoff, the vehicle exploded, due to a failure of the O-ring seal. All seven crew members, including the teacher McAuliffe, died.
Following the Challenger disaster, subsequent missions were canceled. It took more than two years for future space flights to happen after a thorough investigation of the incident. Many American citizens began to question the space program and lose trust in NASA.
Needless to say, safety was of utmost concern for NASA, and they did not want to see anyone, let alone another citizen, killed in spaceflight.
Eight Months of Uncertainty
Dennis Tito trained for eight months at the Star City complex outside Moscow, Russia, where Russian cosmonauts usually train.
However, throughout his training, Tito wasn’t even sure if his mission was going to go ahead.
Tito said during his time in Moscow, “It wasn’t easy. I had to hang out in Russia for eight months without really knowing whether I was going to fly or not.”
Eventually, international space officials agreed that Tito could fly, on three conditions:
- sign a deal relieving all national space agencies of responsibility in the event of a tragedy
- sign a contract that he would pay for any damages that he causes during his time on the ISS and Soyuz
- agrees to be banned from US segments of the ISS unless escorted by another astronaut
Tito agreed to these and was all set to fly.
“The Best Experience of My Entire Life”
https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F-iiBYye810A%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-iiBYye810A&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F-iiBYye810A%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtubeVideo of Soyuz TM-32 Launch, Tito entering ISS, and landing back to Earth. Source: Youtube
In the end, Tito spent 20 million dollars to fly on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 and spend seven days on the ISS. He was in space for a total of 7 days, 22 hours, and 4 minutes in space. He launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with two other Russian cosmonauts, commander Talgat Musabayev and flight engineer Yury Baturin, to the ISS for a supply mission.
Dennis Tito loved his experience in space. “It was a 40-year dream,” he said. On his time in space, Tito reflected:
“I just enjoyed looking at the window, videoing the earth, the portholes, the station. It was just wonderful…It just was — whatever I had expected, the best I had expected times 10. It was the best experience of my whole life, those eight days.” — Dennis Tito
Though he become the first space tourist, Tito himself disliked the term ‘tourist’ because of the amount of training required to go to space. Tito preferred the term ‘spaceflight participant’ to separate commercial space travelers from career astronauts.
Dennis Tito says that all of the drama and difficulties of his space mission are forgotten because NASA has supported other space tourists and private spaceflights since 2001.
“I have nothing but good things to say about NASA,” Tito tells SPACE.com. “Their support is stronger than I would’ve ever dreamed or hoped for.”
One Small Step for Space Tourists…
Following Dennis Tito’s mission to space, seven other civilians have become space tourists and followed in his footsteps. And, of course, now billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are funding their own space flights and tourist opportunities.
Dennis Tito set the foundation for a new way of space travel. And though NASA was hesitant due to safety concerns, Tito’s successful flight proved that civilian space travel is a worthwhile and possible endeavor.