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CNN Sunday Morning

Shuttleworth is Back from Space

Aired May 05, 2002 - 08:24   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Mark Shuttleworth is back on Tera Firma after 10 days in space. He paid millions of dollars for a trip to the International Space Station Alpha. CNN's Jill Dougherty has more on his journey of a lifetime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They plummeted back at earth at ten times the speed of sound, slowing as they hit the atmosphere, the heat so intense it scorched their Soyuz capsule black.

Mark Shuttleworth, the last to emerge after Italian engineer Roberto DeTori and Russian commander, Yuri Godzenko (ph). Doctors checked their pulse -- normal. The return fell on Russian Orthodox Easter. Rescue crews greeted them with colored eggs and cake, then off to a tent for more medical evaluation.

(on camera): The first thing these men feel back on earth is how heavy everything feels. After ten days of weightlessness in space, they have to get used to gravity again and will need several days of rehabilitation.

(voice-over): Mark Shuttleworth's 10 days on the International Space Station made him a hero back home in South Africa where he was dubbed "The Afronaut." In an interview a few days before his return, Shuttleworth told me his seven months of training in Russia helped him adapt quickly to space.

MARK SHUTTLEWORTH, SPACE TOURIST: I feel just as I do on the ground. I don't feel any strange effects other than the fact that things don't stay where you put them.

DOUGHERTY: Shuttleworth conducted experiments while on the ISS and brought one of them back with him. How animal embryos adapt to weightlessness.

RICK SHUTTLEWORTH, SPACE TOURIST'S FATHER: Once Mark decides to do something, there's no stopping him. There's no point in deciding it's not a good idea. I know Mark and I know the way he does things. He does things in a way that benefit many people.

DOUGHERTY: Back on earth a hug from his father, Rick. Space tourist? Mark Shuttleworth doesn't see that it way. He says he's an amateur astronaut helping to open space for others. Jill Dougherty, CNN, Kazakhstan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: So he went and bought the Soyuz, and the space suit.

PHILLIPS: And it cost?

O'BRIEN: I don't know. Look for it on ebay I guess. I don't know.

PHILLIPS: That would be a big price.

O'BRIEN: Undisclosed figure.

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