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2nd Space Tourist To Visit ISS In April 2002

Posted by chrisd on from the another-reason-to-save-your-pennies-and-dimes dept.

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...

5 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Why is this news? by Safety+Cap · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't the eventual goal to have "average Joes" go to space?
    Yes, I'm envious, but until the cost comes down to maybe the price of a luxury cruise, then I could care less.

    --
    Yeah, right.
  2. Wait for this to be verified, then... by twilight30 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    see if he'll agree to a Slashdot interview.

    But wait first.

    --
    ========================================
    Death will come, and will have your eyes
    -- Pavese
  3. Re:Go Africa Go? by brshuttleworth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So lets see: after the US does anything, 500 posts say "America is amazing". One cool thing happens in Africa, someone says "Go, Africa, Go!", and people say "how wierd is that".

    Hmmm. I think its pretty reasonable for someone to be patriotic, don't you?

    --
    -- South African and not-an-expatriot [rare]
  4. Looks like a good guy, too... by Voidhobo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At least according to Slashdot's values...

    In a recent chat-room interview in ZA:

    Scurra: Hiya. How does Russian software development differ from the software development that you've done. I mean, do they program in Cyrillic? Are the Russians keen on something like Linux?

    Mark Shuttleworth: I think Linux is pretty popular here, which is great. Most programming languages don't change, but obviously they use Unicode and DBCS to present the Cyrillic characters in the UI. They have fantastic programmers here (Dmitry Sklyralov (sp?) is Russian ;-)
  5. Interview with Mark Shuttleworth by Siener · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Here is an interesting interview with Mark Shuttleworth.

    A few quotes :

    "I realise that I'm not going on a joyride, this is not just a question of getting into space. We are kick-starting an African space programme. It is not good enough to simply take Russian experiments; we must give South African scientists an opportunity."

    "Of course there is a personal reward, but at the same time the trip will do a tremendous amount for South Africa in the international arena. Also the money I'm spending on this project is not disappropriate to the money I have already spent on other people and that I gave away."

    --
    siener's youtube channel