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2nd Space Tourist To Visit ISS In April 2002
Anonymous Coward writes "Another continent is represented in space: It has just been announced that Thawte founder Mark Shuttleworth is in the final stages of securing a seat on the next Soyuz launch in April. Press Release says he plans to do a lot of Science up there, with a whole bundle of other stuff. SpaceDaily seems to have broken it first of the commercial news, haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Go, Africa, Go! (Oh, and he reads Slashdot religiously ... Good Luck Mark!)" Looks like it's getting cheaper, too. I think it's time for a Slashdot staff meeting in space...
Thawte is based in South Africa (or was, before VeriSign bought Thawte), but it still seems like a wierd thing to post.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Thawte is a south african company. Mark is thus a representative of the continent of Africa, and probably the first person from said continent to go into space.
:wq
-- South African and not-an-expatriot [rare]
If you can't wait, then here's a recent online chat with him, from a South African TV show.
Regards,
-Jeremy
The difficulties appear to have been resolved though, and through the magnificent power of over $20 million, a just about anyone can get into space.
True, almost. To avoid the problems that Dennis Tito had with NASA (he's a safety risk because of lack of training etc.), Mark went through a much more rigorous and thorough training program. It has been reported that he could in fact be considered as a fully trained cosmonaut.
Also, this will not be a purely recreational trip. He's hoping to make the trip pay for itself by conducting some experiments in space that could later have some commercial value.
There also seems to be some confusion here at /. about the "Go, Africa go" bit in the post. Mark Shuttleworth is a South African. So am I, so : "Go, Mark go"
siener's youtube channel
No money is being wasted here. Mark will go up as a fully trained astronaut. This does not cost any more or less than sending up any other trained person. Please note that Mark went through full cosmonaut training together with normal prospective cosmonauts. The only difference is of course that he paid for his own training..
From the press release :
[He] will be a fully certified member of the Soyuz crew, responsible for some Soyuz systems during the flight
He is by no means just a space tourist like Dennis Tito was.
siener's youtube channel
I think the story subitted is incorrect. This will be the third space tourist. The first space tourist was way back in October 29 1998 The second was on 30 April 2001 So this should definately be the thrid right?
Shutleworth is funding three research projects around his trips. One of the projects will involve University of Cape Town, Physiologists. The universities monday paper has the story
America is commonly used to mean USA, but that is mostly due to the fact that the USA is very self-centric. AFAIK USA is the United States Of America, hence the acronym
To the rest of the world America includes Canada, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile etc etc etc etc., because most other countries don't see the USA as all important, more as a large country with a predilection towards violence and aggressive politics.
Try checking your history better. He is something between second and fifteenth depending upon how you feel like counting customers. He is the second paying visitor to the ISS. The others went on a mix of Shuttle and Mir flights. The uncertainty results from questions like "Do politicians count as paying customers?" Four have been flown. All four were major supporters of NASA. and "Do service technicians for paying research customers count?" and "What if the so-called service technician has no operational duties beside enjoying the flight?" There have been both genuine service technicians who ran in flight experiments and pseudo-technicians who just enjoyed the ride.