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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...
Shuttleworth had to go through a lot of haggling to get into space. For one, he had to cut back on his original plan of staying two weeks to only ten days. There were also difficulties in resolving what would happen if Soyuz failed to dock with the ISS - would he get a free repeat flight or not? In addition, Shuttleworth insists on being the first African in space - however, South Africa isn't part of the ISS consortium.
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.
But please, don't by claim that now we have "geeks in space" - the original Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo astronauts were the original ueber-geeks, and their hacks saved many missions from failure.
If you do shuttle up the slashdot folk, don't let Katz go. The last thing I need to hear is him whining about the corporatization of space, or how the 'jock' astronauts bully the poor geek space tourists, or how difficult is is to find a TV station airing buffy the vampire slayer up there.
First a disclaimer, I am an American, not a Russian, these are just the facts as I have come to know them. First off, Russia spent a shitload of money on ISS, not as much as us but it was a significant contributor, I think second overall as far as money spent goes. Secondly, if it hadn't been for the knowhow that the Russians acquired with Mir ISS wouldn't have gotten off of the ground, their biggest contribution by far was the technical knowledge and experiance they brought to the table. Back to money though. What money Russia did spend it really didn't have, the Russian government is in economic straits and space gains them nothing in the short term. So they figured out a way to recoup some of their losses, Tito. He never even touched the American side of the station so Americans (including me) have no right to bitch about it. The Russians have gotten plenty of science done in space, more than us actually because for the longest time we didn't have a station and they had Mir. In conclusion, don't sell the Russians short. Their contributions to the ISS have been substantial and if they need a way to subsidize their part of the station and they can do it than I say more power to them. Neither Americans nor Russians are being kept out of the station because of these extra visitors, so don't worry about it.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
Isn't the eventual goal to have "average Joes" go to space?
Yes, and considering NO average Joes will go until a LOT of rich folks do (think cars, airplanes, etc, etc, etc)... I'd say it is NOT going to happen overnight.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
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?