Mutant/GSA trainee
Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 81
Location: Romania
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[Through Yahoo! News]
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A Russian rocket roared into space Saturday in a burst of flame from the Central Asian steppes, launching millionaire American space tourist Gregory Olsen and a U.S-Russian crew on a two-day trip to the international space station.
With a brief gasp from relatives and friends of Olsen, cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and astronaut William McArthur, the Soyuz craft lifted off with an earsplitting roar from the Baikonur cosmodrome just before 10 a.m. and soared north into the bright autumn sky over the steppes of Kazakhstan.
More than 150 people, including Russian and U.S. space dignitaries, tourists and relatives of the three men, watched as the rocket rose into the air. Some gasped at the explosive separation of the first booster segment, which sent a puff of white smoke as the rocket turned downrange.
Then, as the announcement came that the spacecraft had entered its initial designated orbit nine minutes after launch, the crowd burst into applause. The crew reported that all was well aboard the craft.
Olsen, the 60-year-old founder of an infrared-camera maker based in Princeton, N.J., reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on the Expedition 12 flight. He holds advanced degrees in physics and materials science.
Olsen's daughter, Krista Dibsie, 31, videotaped the launch, craning her head skyward as tears rolled down her cheeks. Her 4-year-old son, Justin, held his hands over his ears, his mouth wide open, near more than 20 other friends, relatives and employees of Olsen's company, Sensors Unlimited Inc.
"There goes Dad," she said quietly. "Love ya, Dad."
"Now I'm nervous for him," she said. "I wasn't before but now he's up there and gosh, he's out of this world. I know that's a corny thing to say, but I can't believe it."
Olsen's sister, Amy McCarroll, said her brother was motivated by a devotion to science.
"He is a scientist first of all, and that's his main reason for going up there ... to help mankind, to see what comes from his experiments," she said.
Cynthia McArthur, whose husband has made three space shuttle flights, said, "Life is good."
McArthur and Takarev will spend six months on the station, replacing Russian Sergei Krikalev and American John Phillips, who will return to Earth on Oct. 11 along with Olsen.
In the hours leading up the launch, the trio, outfitted in bulky spacesuits, had tested systems in the capsule. Shortly beforehand, they lowered the clear plastic covers on their helmets and activated the spacesuits' oxygen supply.
The Soyuz TMA-7 capsule will rendezvous in two days with the station floating some 250 miles above the Earth. Olsen, Tokarev and McArthur will bring cargo aboard and perform experiments.
The cash-strapped Russian Federal Space Agency has turned to space tourism to generate money. Olsen is the third non-astronaut to visit the orbiting station. California businessman Dennis Tito paid about $20 million for a weeklong trip to the space station in 2001, and South African Mark Shuttleworth followed a year later.
Olsen said before the flight that he preferred the term "space flight participant" to "space tourist."
"'Tourism' implies that anyone can just write a check and go up there. That's not what happened," he told The Associated Press.
Eric Anderson, whose Virginia-based company, Space Adventures Ltd., brokered the arrangements with the Russian agency, said allowing non-astronauts to fly to the station expanded the boundaries of space travel.
"People going into space is interesting no matter what. But when it's a civilian like Greg, it just shows how accessible space flight can be," he said.
With the rocket being fueled on the launch pad Friday, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin met with his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Perminov, for talks on the future of joint space missions, with NASA's chief warning that Moscow's demands for payment could end U.S participation.
Griffin said a 2000 U.S. law banning space station-related payments to Russia because Moscow helped Iran build a nuclear plant "could end a continuous American presence" on the station.
Since the 2003 Columbia disaster grounded the shuttle fleet, Russia's Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have been the workhorses of the joint space projects, shuttling crews and cargo to the space station. Discovery visited the station in July, but problems with the foam insulation on its external fuel tank have cast doubt on when the shuttle will fly again.
Russia has made it clear that it expects the United States to make payment or some sort of capital investment in exchange for future U.S. participation on Russian flights.
Russian space officials warned Saturday that they could not guarantee McArthur's return next spring unless NASA pays for his return flight — something currently barred under U.S law.
"Our colleagues are interested in putting a U.S astronaut on the Soyuz in the spring. But we have no obligations in this regard," Alexei Krasnov, head of the Federal Space Agency's manned flight program, said in comments broadcast on state television.
"We will also discuss compensation for McArthur's return because formally speaking we don't have any such obligation, either."
The Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 penalizes countries that sell unconventional weapons and missile technology to Iran. Russia is building an $800 million nuclear power plant in Iran despite U.S objections that this could help Tehran build atomic bombs.
The U.S. Senate agreed unanimously last week to amend the law, lifting the ban on NASA purchases of Soyuz seats until 2012. The House has yet to act on the measure.
Griffin said unless exemptions are made for NASA's work with Russia, it was possible that no U.S. astronauts would be flying on the next Soyuz mission in April.
"At issue is whether there will be future U.S. crew members and future U.S. crew missions if the congressional provisions are not granted," he said.
NASA officials in Houston said Thursday that they expect McArthur to return to Earth aboard a Soyuz in the spring, one way or another. |
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