Plans to fly millionaire businessman and ex-NASA engineer Dennis Tito to the International Space Station (ISS) in April have been criticised by ISS partner the European Space Agency (ESA).
Tito has paid $20 million to fly on a Russian Soyuz TM craft to the ISS. His original trip had been planned to the Mir space station, which is being de-orbited.
ESA is concerned that if Tito flies to the ISS there will be calls to fly other "tourists" to the incomplete station which will not be fully operational until 2006. Jorg Feustal-Buechl, ESA's director of manned spaceflight, has called the decision "irresponsible" until the ISS is fully operational, adding that Russia has no right to send "amateurs" to the space station.
ESA says if the flight goes ahead it will be "in violation of an intergovernmental agreement".
Tito, who signed an official contract with Russia's space and aviation agency Rosaviacosmos, has been added to the crew of the 10 day mission to switch Soyuz TM vehicles at the ISS and to deliver new equipment. NASA has not yet approved the trip, and has expressed concerns. Every crew going to the ISS has to be approved by all the international partners of the project, says NASA.
Rosaviacosmos says that the make-up of a Russian Soyuz crew is an internal decision. "We don't need NASA's permission to select a visiting crew," says the Star City Cosmonaut Training Centre.
Source: Flight International
