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CNN Saturday Morning News

Tito Begins Trip to Space Station

Aired April 28, 2001 - 08:00   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: The international space station will receive its first paying visitor in the next couple days. American multimillionaire Dennis Tito and two cosmonauts blasted off from Russia this morning headed for the space station. It's a trip NASA would have preferred Tito had not made, but the U.S. space agency finally decided to give Tito a one time exemption to make the trip.

CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty joins us now with more. She's been covering the blastoff -- hi, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Kyra.

Well, everything seems to be going smoothly. Russian mission control says that they've been in communication and that all three aboard are feeling fine, including our first space tourist. They are expected to arrive on Monday. The trip actually takes two days out to the international space station. But that really depends on when the shuttle Endeavour leaves because the shuttle Endeavour was delayed. It's already attached to the ISS. They've had some computer problems and they didn't want to leave until all of that was resolved and the system was tested.

So we believe Dennis Tito will be up there by Monday.

But for Dennis Tito all of those problems that he's been encountering are in the past. You know, he says he's been dreaming of going to space ever since 1957 when Russia launched its first Sputnik and he tried unsuccessfully 10 years ago to go, but the Soviet Union collapsed. And then he tried to get a seat on the Mir Space station and of course they sank the Mir last month. So finally they offered him this chance for a seat up to the ISS and, of course, that's what he took and that's where he'll be going.

His job aboard, Kyra, is really very minimal. He's going to be dealing with some radio communications. But essentially he'll probably be spending a lot of time looking out the window and taking pictures. He's taking a video camera along. He has a Dictaphone with him and also a bunch of CDs and a CD player to spend his time. He's a big opera buff so he'll be playing some opera music -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jill Dougherty live from Moscow, thanks so much.

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