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CNN Live Today

Second Space Tourist Takes Off

Aired April 25, 2002 - 14:57   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go back overseas and over the planet earth, where the world's second space tourist said farewell to Mother Earth today and hello to the heavens. Twenty- eight-year-old Mark Shuttleworth, he's an Internet tycoon. He spent $28 million to ride a Russian rocket.

All eyes in his native South Africa were on today's launch. And Charlayne Hunter-Gault of CNN has the rest of his story in space.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The preparation, last minute. The facilities, makeshift. The screen, small. Like this room, that's the library, and a handful of students able to crowd in.

But these students were among the lucky ones. Most schools in South Africa, like most homes, don't have a television, let alone a satellite dish that would have enabled them to see the lift-off. But here, at the moment of blast off...

(APPLAUSE)

MANDLA NULOVU, STUDENT: It is so exciting, seeing them, the rocket from the atmosphere to the -- to the space.

TSHIDI NTLHOLO, STUDENT: And the most fascinating thing was that the South African person was there.

HUNTER-GAULT: Teaching science at Minerva High, located in one of South Africa's poorest townships, has been a challenge.

MOMVULA TSHELA, SCIENCE TEACHER: We don't have some of the apparatus that are supposed to be used. We do not have some of the chemicals that are supposed to be used in the laboratories for the experiments.

HUNTER-GAULT: But teachers have raised test scores dramatically over the past three years. The school's performance has earned it a place in a new national program that will provide computers with Internet access, and other technological resources aimed at improving math and science.

Some of these students will be able to talk with Mark Shuttleworth in space and participate in programs he plans to launch on his return. No one seemed to notice or care that the first "Afronaut" in space was white and a billionaire.

MOSES MTHAPO, STUDENT: We'll be motivated in our hearts, and be able to see and to go reach for our goals.

HUNTER-GAULT (on camera): Sharing this experience with these students here today was a very moving experience for me, taking me back to my school days in the segregated American South of the '40s and '50s, where our teachers didn't have the facilities or the resources either, but they believed that dreams propel ambition. Dreams fueled, for example, by the first "Afronaut" in space. Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Alexandra, South Africa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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