First space tourist ready to blast off

But the trip, starting from the same launch pad from which Yuri Gagarin became the first man in orbit just 40 years ago, could mark a new era.

‘‘Over the past century or two, millionaires have opened the public’s access to dozens of activities which now entertain and thrill millions,’’ said James Oberg, a US expert on the Russian space programme.

‘‘It happened with airplanes, with ballooning, with scuba and skydiving and home telescopes, with photography and home video recording and personal computers.’’

Tito is flying to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket along with cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.

The US space agency Nasa had objected to the flight, saying an amateur aboard may jeopardise the crew’s safety, but dropped its opposition this week.

Russian space officials insist Tito has received the same training for living in space that professionals get, and that his main tasks are to stay out of the crew’s way, follow the general regulations aboard, and know how to act in an emergency.

He will be generally limited to the 43 foot Russian-built Zvezda module, named after the Russian word for star. Zvezda has sleeping bunks, a refrigerator, a table for securing meals while eating, a toilet and a shower.

‘‘The tourist Tito will simply sit and watch,’’ said Russian Aerospace Agency spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko.

Tito denies being a simply high-flying tourist, saying he will experiment with stereo photography from space and will fulfil a larger mission of tracing the path for future recreational trips to space.

Although Tito reportedly paid up to £15m for the trip, some entrepreneurs envision a time when space tourism can be more affordable and widespread.

One US based company has declared it is designing orbiting stations for future tourists and another said it expects to be able to offer sub-orbital excursions by 2005.

Tito has spent hundreds of hours of training in classrooms at the Star City training centre outside Moscow, including time in a centrifuge that creates gravitational forces eight times stronger than Earth’s and in a Soyuz capsule simulator.

Oberg dismissed Nasa’s safety worries. After operating the Mir space station for 15 years, Russia has more experience in manned space flights than any other nation, and Nasa has been eager to learn from the Russians, sending 44 astronauts to the Mir over the past years.

‘‘Nasa kept repeating that the Russians were teaching us all they knew about space station safety, and now suddenly Nasa is proclaiming it knows more than Russia about space station safety,’’ Oberg said. ‘‘I trust the Russian assurances, they have the experience which Nasa does not to justify them.’’

Russia discarded the Mir last month, to the dismay of many Russians who saw the station as one of the country’s premier achievements. The timing of Nasa’s objections to Tito’s flight seemed ‘‘like picking a fight at a funeral,’’ Oberg said.

Nasa protests stoked nationalist feelings among Russian space officials already upset over playing a secondary role to the Americans on the international station and strengthened the Russian determination to send Tito up.

Nasa said this week that Tito may be allowed to visit the American segment of the station, but only if accompanied by an astronaut. Under Tito’s agreement with the Russians, he will be held responsible if he breaks anything.

Despite the excitement over Tito’s trip, some Russian space veterans caution against overenthusiasm.

‘‘I think tourist projects are a bit too early for space,’’ said cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev, who holds the record for total time spent in space 747 days over three missions.

‘‘With ordinary tourism, you go buy a tour and fly off. You get certain conditions: If you don’t like your room, you can change it; if you don’t get enough fruit at the hotel, you can go out and buy more,’’ he said.

‘‘All of these things that surround tourism are not envisaged here.’’