Dennis Tito (born August 8, 1940 in Queens, New York, USA) is an American businessman who became the first private person to pay for his journey into space.
Short biography
Tito received his B. S. in astronautics and aeronautics from New York University in 1962 and his M. S. in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in 1964. He worked as an aerospace engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he helped plan and supervise the Mariner 4 and Mariner 9 missions to Mars. In 1972, he left the astronautics to finance and helped found the American investment company Wilshire Associates, and also created the Wilshire 5000 index, a measure of the US securities market. He was the first to use mathematical tools used in astronautics to determine the risks of the financial market.
Now or Never
April 28, 2001 is the birthday of commercial spaceflight. On this day, an American businessman turned out to be the first space tourist in history. He paid for his stay on the ISS, as well as his transportation there aboard a Russianpassenger transport ship Soyuz. Forty years after Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, Tito showed that space travel could make money, a lot of money, as he shelled out a hefty $20 million.
He dreamed of going to space ever since Yuri Gagarin's flight. And in early 2000, Dennis began to turn his dream into reality. He was turning 60 that year, and he felt that his chances of getting into space were rapidly diminishing. At the time, the oldest astronaut was Dick Slayton, who went into orbit in 1975 at the age of 51.
And Tito I said to myself: "Now or never".
In June 2000, he signed a contract with MirCorp, which included a Soyuz TM-32 flight to the Russian space station Mir. However, in December of that year, these plans fell through as Russia announced that it was planning to deorbit the aging station (Mir burned up in Earth's atmosphere in March 2001).
Despite the setback, Dennis Tito soon agreed again. He signed a contract with Space Adventures, which was an intermediary for the delivery of individuals into space. The ISS was a relatively new project at the time, with assembly beginning in November 1998.
Spike in wheels
The Russian side agreed to take Tito's money and offered him a place on the Soyuz spacecraft. But other station partners, notably NASA and the space agencies of Canada, Europe and Japan, were notare positive. They bluntly told Russia they were not recommending the flight to Dennis.
NASA representatives at that time, in principle, did not object to the presence of a paying client on board the orbiting laboratory. They simply did not believe that by April Tito's training would be sufficient, since then complex and responsible station events were supposed to be held.
A NASA press release dated March 19, 2001 stated that having a non-professional crew member, not trained in all critical station systems, who cannot respond and assist in any unforeseen situation that may arise, and who will require constant monitoring, will introduce a significant burden on the expedition and reduce the overall level of safety of the ISS.
The first space tourist believes his age also played a role. According to him, older people have heart attacks, and strokes, and whatever, and transporting a corpse back to Earth would not be very convenient and psychologically difficult. Therefore, NASA did everything possible to prevent Tito from flying in April.
Eight months in Star City
But Tito did not give up. He continued his training at Star City near Moscow, where cosmonauts had been trained since the days of Yuri Gagarin. Tito spent most of the year there, in limbo. According to him, it was not easy. He had to stay in Russia for eight months, not sure if he would fly or not.
In the end persistenceDennis paid off. Against NASA's objections, he was launched into orbit on April 28, 2001, becoming the 415th person ever in space.
According to Tito, all the drama and hardships are transient, especially since the agency has supported the following space tourists visiting the orbiting lab and has also been so supportive of private spaceflight in general.
Dream come true
The first space tourist went into orbit, spent about six days aboard the ISS, and then landed in Kazakhstan on May 6, 2001.
His flight was significant as it inspired a number of investments in private space travel. Probably Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and even Elon Musk's SpaceX wouldn't be in the business if Dennis Tito's flight hadn't taken place. His example showed that space flight is accessible to individuals both in terms of physical fitness and financially.
For his part, Tito is happy to have been a part of the industry's birth, though he credits the entrepreneurs and orbital tourists who came after him. And for him, of course, the trip will always resonate on a much more personal level. According to Tito, traveling was his 40-year dream. The flight gave him a sense of the fullness of life - everything that he does beyond that will be for him only an additional reward.
Dennis Tito is a space tourist
Tito landed in the Kazakh steppeon board the landing capsule of the Soyuz spacecraft, which returned him and two Russian cosmonauts from the ISS to Earth. Dennis, Talgat Mussabayev and Yuri Baturin landed at 05:42 GMT. The astronauts softened the fall with onboard rockets and a parachute. Three hours earlier, the Soyuz capsule undocked from the space station and began its lightning-fast descent to Earth.
In the final video from space, Tito said that he personally fulfilled the dream of his life, which could not be better for him, and thanked everyone who supported his mission. As the crew left the ISS, Talgat Mussabayev and American astronaut Jim Voss embraced, and Voss shook hands with Tito. Tito and the cosmonauts then swam headfirst into the Soyuz, and the hatch connecting the capsule to the station was closed. Inside the capsule, they turned on the power - the spacecraft drew energy from the ISS and fed the navigation computer. They put on bulky spacesuits for the flight to Earth, checked the ship's pressurization, and undocked from the station.
The video camera on the capsule showed the rapid removal of the ISS and the appearance in the field of view of the Earth. The capsule circled the planet once and then shed most of its weight, including the habitation module with a toilet and kitchen, as well as an instrument compartment with batteries and solar panels. Only the 3.3-ton landing pod remains.
Hard landing
The Soyuz's main parachute was supposed to deploy at 0526 GMT before the brake jets fired to cushion the landing. In the last communication session with the crew, the centerflight control in Korolev, near Moscow, asked Musabayev to give Tito two tablets and s alt water to help him survive the g-forces. He did not specify what the drugs were.
Flight commander Pyotr Klimuk told the crew that the weather at the landing site near the village, located 400 km southwest of the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, is good, cloudiness is negligible, wind is 3–7 m/s and temperature is about 20 °C.
After landing
After landing 80 kilometers northeast of Arkalyk in the Kazakh steppe, the trio underwent a preliminary medical check at a mobile medical center. From there, the crew was taken to Astana airport for an official meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. After a brief press conference at 12:00 GMT, the first space tourist, Musabayev and Baturin, flew to Moscow. Russian space officials were hoping for a crash-free landing to end Tito's controversial trip.
Former US Senator and astronaut John Glenn called Tito's trip on a Russian spacecraft an abuse of a major space exploration mission. At the same time, he said that he does not blame Tito for his desire to go into space, as it is an incredible experience, but considers this trip a misuse of a spacecraft designed for research.
NASA Concerns
Despite the fact that NASA prevented Tito's flight until the completion of the multi-billion dollar space complex, the tripsparked speculation that other members of the elite would want to rise above the atmosphere. Names that surfaced included Oscar-winning director James Cameron, who was looking for the perfect angle to capture our planet.
Praising Cameron for waiting for NASA's blessing for a trip to the ISS, space agency chief Dan Goldin constantly referred to Tito in front of reporters and Congress in terms of his gigantic ego and the cosmic insignificance of a Wall Street investor. He told a House subcommittee that this situation has become incredibly stressful for the men and women of NASA and that Mr. Tito is unaware of the efforts of thousands of people in the US and Russia working to keep him and the rest of the crew safe.
Security threat?
These protests barely penetrated the thick hull of the ISS flying at an altitude of more than 300 km, where the first space tourist, a former NASA engineer, enjoyed the unfeigned support of his Soyuz comrades, the polite hospitality of two NASA astronauts living in “Alpha”, and was received into the warm embrace of the Russian station commander.
Filled with the sounds of arias and overtures, and the sights of passing continents and oceans, the serene world of citizen-explorer Tito was only disturbed by an early bout of seasickness.
During a press conference, he dismissed Goldin's accusations that his presence threatened the safety of space professionals. Tito, who paid up to $20 million for round-trip flights, helped the crew a lot.
Dirty work
Dennis Tito was in space handing out food and doing some pretty dirty work, helping the crew and giving them more time to do their job.
It was safety considerations that led 60-year-old Tito to make his space journey. Yuri Baturin, cosmonaut Talgat Mussabayev and Tito delivered a new rescue capsule to Alpha. The arrival of a new Soyuz was required every six months, as the toxic fuel on board the Russian ships decomposed and corroded engine parts for a long time. The old vessel was about two weeks away from its 200-day warranty period.
NASA, the lead partner of 16 countries that assembled Alpha in parts, was offended because Moscow sold the place to a non-professional.
There would be no happiness
But the underfunded Russian space program, which controls the passenger list for the Soyuz mission, continued experimenting with high-flying capitalism, especially since the cost of a ticket covered the cost of the entire flight. Years of cash shortages that forced Russians to start their tourism business have plagued Moscow's space program since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Partly for this reason, Russia abandoned the Mir station after a record 15 years in orbit.
Washington paid the lion's share of the cost of the project, but Moscow, which has unrivaled experience in long-range space missions, designed and built many of the key parts. Apparently, US opposition to Tito's flightwas politically motivated.
