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American Morning

Tito to Become World's First Space Tourist

Aired April 26, 2001 - 11:07   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: California businessman Dennis Tito is getting prepared for the trip of lifetime. Tito is about to become a tourist in space. If all goes as planned, Tito will head to international space station Saturday aboard a Russian spacecraft.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now live from Moscow. He's got more on the story for us from there -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Leon. You know, the final preparations are underway as we all really wait now for the launch of Dennis Tito, the Californian millionaire. He's set to become world's first space tourist.

Mr. Tito, who is said to have paid the Russian space agency $20 million for the trip, is now in Kazakhstan in the Baikonur Cosmodrome, where his spacecraft will take off Saturday morning., as we said, at 3:37 on the dot local time, that rather Eastern time. There, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft is being moved slowly into position onto its launch pad.

Mr. Tito himself and other crewmembers are currently in quarantine to try and limit the number of people they come into contact with in the time immediately before the blastoff to try and limit the chances of them contracting any kind of infection ahead of the mission.

Now, despite the misgivings of NASA, the American space agency, the Russian mission carrying Mr. Tito will travel to the international space station, where Dennis Tito will stay for about six days before hopefully returning to Earth aboard another Russian spacecraft. Members of his family, including his former wife and two of his sons, have arrived in Moscow. They will be making their way to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to witness his launch, that launch, as I said, scheduled if all goes according to plan for 3:37 in the morning Eastern time on Saturday morning. We will bring that to you live, of course.

Coverage in the Russian press has been quite positive of this situation, many of them very excited, many Russians very excited about the prospect of the world's first space tourist going into the stars aboard a Russian spacecraft. One quotation stands out from the coverage that I've read, one Russian cosmonaut saying that you have to admire the courage of Dennis Tito. It's just a shame, the cosmonaut says, he's an American and not a Russian. So very positive coverage, but tinged perhaps with element of regret, Leon.

HARRIS: Matthew, I've got to ask you this one question because we're calling Mr. Tito a space tourist. And I'm assuming that he's not going to be up there just laying around and working on his tan. There is no pool. There is nothing for him to do in that regard. Do we know exactly what it is he will be doing physically for the next six days or so if he does go through with all of this?

CHANCE: Well, first of all, he is a tourist. But he's also undergone a great deal of training in preparation for this mission. He's been for the past eight months in an intensive Russian training program to familiarize him with all the equipment, with all the dos and don'ts of being onboard a Russian spacecraft and being onboard the international space station.

He's not going to be engaged in the day-to-day operation of the space station or of the mission proper. But he says he is going to carry out a number of experiments himself. He says he's going to do some kind of experiment with stereo photography.

He also says he plans to listen to a lot of music when he's up there. He said he's taken eight compact discs, seven of which he said are operas, one of which he said is the latest Beatles album. So I'm sure he's going to be able to keep himself occupied as well with the wonderful views he's going to be able to see from up on the international space station, Leon.

HARRIS: All right, I suppose so. He only spent $20 million to do it. So let's see if he gets his money's worth. Matthew Chance reporting live for us from Moscow, thanks much.

Now, folks, you can find out more about Dennis Tito and his dream of lifetime on our web site. Just log on to cnn.com/space. Tito explains to us why he's always wanted to be a tourist in space. Once again, that web site is cnn.com/space.

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