On April 28, 2001, the world's first space tourist hitched a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The 60-year-old businessman and multimillionaire Dennis Tito funded his own trip to space, and it cost him $20 million. He originally signed a deal with a private company called MirCorp to fly to Russia's aging Mir space station. Those plans fell through when Russia announced that Mir would deorbit in March of 2001. Tito didn't let that stop him from going to space. He then made a deal with another company called Space Adventures to go to the International Space Station instead. NASA wasn't too happy about having guests at the space station, but the Russians had no problem taking Tito's money and launching him in their Soyuz spacecraft along with two cosmonauts. They met up with the crew of Expedition 2 at the International Space Station and stayed there for about a week before safely returning to Earth.
The 60-year-old businessman and multimillionaire Dennis Tito funded his own trip to space, and it cost him $20 million. He originally signed a deal with a private company called MirCorp to fly to Russia's aging Mir space station. Those plans fell through when Russia announced that Mir would deorbit in March of 2001. Tito didn't let that stop him from going to space. He then made a deal with another company called Space Adventures to go to the International Space Station instead. NASA wasn't too happy about having guests at the space station, but the Russians had no problem taking Tito's money and launching him in their Soyuz spacecraft along with two cosmonauts. They met up with the crew of Expedition 2 at the International Space Station and stayed there for about a week before safely returning to Earth.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00 On this day in space.
00:04 On April 28, 2001, the world's first space tourist hitched a ride to the International
00:08 Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
00:11 The 60-year-old businessman and multi-millionaire Denis Tito funded his own trip to space, and
00:16 it cost him $20 million.
00:19 He originally signed a deal with a private company called MirCorp to fly to Russia's
00:22 aging Mir Space Station.
00:24 Those plans fell through when Russia announced that Mir would de-orbit in March of 2001.
00:29 Tito didn't let that stop him from going to space.
00:32 He then made a deal with another company called Space Adventures to go to the International
00:35 Space Station instead.
00:38 NASA wasn't too happy about having guests at the space station, but the Russians had
00:41 no problem taking Tito's money and launching him and their Soyuz spacecraft along with
00:45 two cosmonauts.
00:46 They met up with the crew of Expedition 2 at the International Space Station and stayed
00:50 there for about a week before safely returning to Earth.
00:52 And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:55 [Music]