Tourist makes it to space station
A Russian spacecraft carrying California multi-millionaire Dennis Tito pulled up to the international space station today, within hours of space shuttle Endeavour’s departure.
The Soyuz capsule docked just before 0900 BST, ending a two-day journey that began in Kazakhstan.
Nasa broadcast the 245 mile high link-up, using the grey and grainy images provided by Russian Mission Control. The Soyuz Tito’s taxi made its slow approach with Russian cosmonaut Talgat Musabayev at the controls.
A Russian flight controller asked how Tito was doing. ‘‘He’s doing fine,’’ Musabayev replied.
The Soyuz’s arrival marked the beginning of six days of anxious monitoring by Nasa, who opposed Tito’s visit for months on safety grounds and finally capitulated last week.
Space station Alpha’s three residents were under orders to conduct safety briefings and emergency drills as soon as the hatches opened. Nasa cleared the station crew’s schedule for the rest of this week to allow time for "entertaining,’’ as one Nasa manager described it over the weekend.
Tito is paying as much as £14m for this adventure of a lifetime.
All the money is going to the Russian space programme; neither Nasa nor any of the other space station partners get a cut.
Tito, Musabayev, his commander, and flight engineer Yuri Baturin were undoubtedly thrilled to reach Alpha, a palace compared with the cramped, spartan Soyuz.
They’ve already accomplished their major objective: delivering a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the station.
American astronauts Jim Voss and Susan Helms said repeatedly they would extend a warm welcome to whoever brings their new Soyuz. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev, the station commander, has supported Tito’s flight all along.
The 60-year-old financier has strict limitations imposed on him by Nasa. He cannot enter the two US modules without an escort, which limits him to the two Russian-built compartments and his Soyuz.
If he breaks anything, he pays for it. If he’s hurt or killed, he can’t sue Nasa. Neither can his family. Tito agreed to those stipulations, in writing, before his launch.
Nasa can’t blame Tito for the failed computer hard drives aboard the space station; they stopped working nearly a week ago.
The computer problems left the space station flying on autopilot part of last week and almost delayed the Soyuz’s arrival by one day.
Russian space officials agreed to put the Soyuz in a holding pattern if Endeavour needed an extra day at the space station, which it did not.
By the time Endeavour pulled away yesterday afternoon, all three command-and-control computers on the space station were working, but not all of them 100%. Mission Control in Houston scrambled to get the continuous TV link restored in time for today’s docking.
Endeavour was about 80 miles from the space station when the Soyuz docked, 14 hours after the shuttle parted.
Tito, who worked as an aerospace engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, during the 1960s, plans to focus on Earth observations and photography during his visit. He also plans some educational activities.
He and his crewmates will leave on Saturday night on board the Soyuz that’s been docked to the space station for six months, and aim for a landing in Kazakhstan.
