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CNN Live Today

Talk with Dennis Tito

Aired February 03, 2003 - 10:51   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.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the wake of events over the weekend, it's probably a natural reaction to take a few of the things we've taken for granted and new ideas that we've gotten accustomed to and put them in new perspective. Well, space tourism is one of those ideas that had gotten quite popular a got lot of attention when businessman Dennis Tito managed to buy his way onboard for millions of dollars back in 2001. He rode a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station, in fact, you may recall.
Well, after this weekend, it could be a very long time now before another space tourist does anything like that, and that's the view of Dennis Tito, who joins us now from Los Angeles to share his thoughts this morning.

Dennis, good to see you begin.

What were your thought this past weekend when you saw and heard the news?

DENNIS TITO, FMR. SPACE TOURIST: Well, I was totally shocked and saddened. There are very few people that have actually flown to space, so you really share a lot with those people, even if you have never met them. And to see them die in this tragedy was very sad.

HARRIS: Yes, and we heard President Bush say over the weekend that these astronauts, these heroes, they knew the risks involved. You went through the same kind of training largely that they went through. How well could you possibly grasp the idea of the risk of this kind of event happening?

TITO: Well, you are very much aware of the risk. That's part of the training. You realize how many things can go wrong. You don't go ahead with this kind of effort unless you're willing to accept it. We had the Challenger tragedy, being well aware of that, several Russian fatalities, and I was aware that I might not come back, but I still went ahead and I wanted to achieve this.

HARRIS: Was there any moment during your re-entry event, was there any moment where you had a sneaking thought of something like this, some sort of catastrophic failure, or any kind of catastrophe happening? Did that ever sneak into your mind?

TITO: Well, you don't have too much time to think during reenty; everything happens so quickly. And it's a somewhat violent procedure that you go through, and in our case, and not too many people know this, but our re-entry had a slight malfunction, and we ended up coming in on a much steeper and hotter trajectory and had much higher G-forces than planned, and we knew this as we were plunging through the atmosphere. But you just hold on, and grit your teeth and hope you get through it.

HARRIS: What do you think this means with the idea that talked about coming into this converstation, the idea of space tourism. Do you think that this going to basically put a halt to that kind of thinking, because of these risks?

TITO: Well, I think a hold, because the whole space program is being re-evaluated, and the shuttle flights are going to be on hold, and the Russian spacecraft are going to have to be used to transport crewss, o it's going to certianly put a delay in it. I know that it wouldn't have affected my decision to go into space; it was just something I was going to do.

HARRIS: You know it didn't affect your decision, but knowing what you know now and having seen what you have seen, would it affect a decision to allow one of your family members to go on a trip like that?

TITO: Well, actually, my 28-year-old son would like to fly in space some day. He just has to earn enough money to be able to afford to do it, and I would support him going.

HARRIS: Interesting. Well, we sure do appreciate you joining us this morning and sharing your thoughts this morning, Dennis.

Dennis Tito, thank you, take care.

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







Aired February 3, 2003 - 10:51   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the wake of events over the weekend, it's probably a natural reaction to take a few of the things we've taken for granted and new ideas that we've gotten accustomed to and put them in new perspective. Well, space tourism is one of those ideas that had gotten quite popular a got lot of attention when businessman Dennis Tito managed to buy his way onboard for millions of dollars back in 2001. He rode a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station, in fact, you may recall.
Well, after this weekend, it could be a very long time now before another space tourist does anything like that, and that's the view of Dennis Tito, who joins us now from Los Angeles to share his thoughts this morning.

Dennis, good to see you begin.

What were your thought this past weekend when you saw and heard the news?

DENNIS TITO, FMR. SPACE TOURIST: Well, I was totally shocked and saddened. There are very few people that have actually flown to space, so you really share a lot with those people, even if you have never met them. And to see them die in this tragedy was very sad.

HARRIS: Yes, and we heard President Bush say over the weekend that these astronauts, these heroes, they knew the risks involved. You went through the same kind of training largely that they went through. How well could you possibly grasp the idea of the risk of this kind of event happening?

TITO: Well, you are very much aware of the risk. That's part of the training. You realize how many things can go wrong. You don't go ahead with this kind of effort unless you're willing to accept it. We had the Challenger tragedy, being well aware of that, several Russian fatalities, and I was aware that I might not come back, but I still went ahead and I wanted to achieve this.

HARRIS: Was there any moment during your re-entry event, was there any moment where you had a sneaking thought of something like this, some sort of catastrophic failure, or any kind of catastrophe happening? Did that ever sneak into your mind?

TITO: Well, you don't have too much time to think during reenty; everything happens so quickly. And it's a somewhat violent procedure that you go through, and in our case, and not too many people know this, but our re-entry had a slight malfunction, and we ended up coming in on a much steeper and hotter trajectory and had much higher G-forces than planned, and we knew this as we were plunging through the atmosphere. But you just hold on, and grit your teeth and hope you get through it.

HARRIS: What do you think this means with the idea that talked about coming into this converstation, the idea of space tourism. Do you think that this going to basically put a halt to that kind of thinking, because of these risks?

TITO: Well, I think a hold, because the whole space program is being re-evaluated, and the shuttle flights are going to be on hold, and the Russian spacecraft are going to have to be used to transport crewss, o it's going to certianly put a delay in it. I know that it wouldn't have affected my decision to go into space; it was just something I was going to do.

HARRIS: You know it didn't affect your decision, but knowing what you know now and having seen what you have seen, would it affect a decision to allow one of your family members to go on a trip like that?

TITO: Well, actually, my 28-year-old son would like to fly in space some day. He just has to earn enough money to be able to afford to do it, and I would support him going.

HARRIS: Interesting. Well, we sure do appreciate you joining us this morning and sharing your thoughts this morning, Dennis.

Dennis Tito, thank you, take care.

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