Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Interview With Mark Shuttleworth

Aired April 24, 2002 - 13:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A 28-year-old Internet tycoon is about to become the first African in space, and only the second ever space tourist. Mark Shuttleworth is scheduled to lift off tomorrow with a Russian crew bound for the International Space Station. Today he talked about his adventure with Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jill Dougherty in Star City, right outside Moscow, the place where the cosmonauts and other trains. With us is Mark Shuttleworth who will be taking off for the International Space Station.

And I should explain this mask, because Mark is in quarantine, and I have to wear a mask to make sure that he doesn't catch a cold or something worse from me before going up.

Thanks for being with us, Mark.

Mark, you don't describe yourself as a tourist, and you're not a professional cosmonaut. So what are you.

MARK SHUTTLEWORTH, ASTRONAUT: I'm trying very hard to try to take a first step into providing and producing a private space program for South Africa, for Africa, modeled largely on the lines of NASA and other public space agencies, looking into science and education from space, using space as a platform for science and education.

So, no, I'm definitely not a professional astronaut or cosmonaut, and I'm also not a tourist. I'll need a long holiday after this is finished.

DOUGHERTY: And I understand this interest goes way back even to your childhood, that you used to build rockets?

SHUTTLEWORTH: Not very successfully. I used to scour old encyclopedias for recipes for gunpowder, and fireworks propellant and designs and try to model them up and terrify the neighbors with strange creations.

DOUGHERTY: What does it feel like? What does it feel like to be weightless? What does it feel like to go through some of the centrifical training? SHUTTLEWORTH: One of the most fascinating things that I have had do here is talk to the astronauts, and they say you can train and train and train, but you will never really know what it is like until you get there. We have simulated parts of the exercise. We had the centrifuge, which simulates the intense G forces of launch and landing. The Soyuz is more like an old Apollo style rocket and capsule than it is -- it's not a shuttle by any means, and it has -- physiologically, it's a much more intense experience, intense launch and intense re-entry and landing.

DOUGHERTY: Now, the experiments, is there one that actually you have to participate in?

SHUTTLEWORTH: Probably the most exciting one from a work point of view is the stem cell and embryology experiment. We will be carrying to space, I think for the first time ever, stem cells, and these are a very exciting new biotechnology area research, which we hope will ultimately be used to treat things like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease, and other wasting conditions which we have no way it treat.

DOUGHERTY: When you look way down at, say, 50 or a hundred years from now, where do you think we will be with people going to space, realistically.

SHUTTLEWORTH: I think there is going to be a tremendous resurgence of interest in space. There is a very deep curiosity in people in general about what's out there.

I don't see myself as a tourist, but if what I'm doing helps to reignite people's interest in space, and if it helps to draw investment, to provide completely privately owned launch and re-entry capability, then that's fantastic.

DOUGHERTY: Well, thank you very much, Mark. It was fascinating, and I wish you nothing but the best up there.

SHUTTLEWORTH: Thanks for coming.

DOUGHERTY: Thank you.

And again, Mark Shuttleworth, the man from South Africa who will be taking off for the International Space Station.

I'm Jill Dougherty at Star City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com