Japan space tourist to blast off

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20 ... 02,00.html

 

JAPAN'S first space tourist, Daisuke Enomoto, will blast off in a Russian spaceship headed for the International Space Station (ISS) on September 14, the Russian space agency Roskosmos said today.

 

"The Japanese tourist is due to go into space on September 14. He is continuing his training at Star City (near Moscow)," said spokesman Igor Panarine.

 

"Last month, Daisuke Enomoto took a sea and land survival course in Sebastopol (Ukraine). Now he is training on a simulator of the ISS. And he is working at it with considerable determination," the spokesman said.

 

The first Japanese space tourist is due to take off in a Soyuz capsule from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, accompanied by a Russian cosmonaut, Mikhail Tiurin, and a NASA astronaut, Michael Lopez-Alegria.

 

Mr Enomoto, 35, who made his fortune in the Internet business, will pay nearly $US20 million ($26.18 million) to spend about 10 days in space.

 

He will become the world's fourth space tourist.

 

US millionaire Dennis Tito was the first tourist to travel in space in 2001, followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and American businessman Greg Olsen in 2005.

 

Mr Panarine said Russia's state commission for space would meet on August 30 to formally approve the date of the flight and its crew members.