Updated: Fri, Mar 26, 2004, 10:08 AM ET (1508 GMT)
Originally Posted: Thu, Mar 25, 2004, 7:30 PM ET (0030 GMT)
An American businessman will fly to the International Space Station as early as October as a tourist on a Soyuz spacecraft, NASA Watch reported Thursday. The report said that Gregory Olsen, head of Sensors Unlimited Inc., a New Jersey-based developer of infrared cameras, will fly on a Soyuz taxi mission to the station in October. Space tourism company Space Adventures is expected to make the announcement Monday morning in New York City. On Friday the Russian news agency RIA Novosti confirmed that Olsen "has strong chances" of being the next space tourist, although the report suggested he might fly in April 2005 rather than this October. Space tourism flights to the station had been on hold in the aftermath of the Columbia accident because of the need to use the Soyuz to ferry crews to and from the station, as well as an existing agreement with ESA to fly European astronauts on the taxi flights. The ESA agreement, however, ends after the April taxi flight, opening the door for additional flight opportunities for space tourists. To date two tourists, American businessman Dennis Tito and South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, have flown to the station on taxi flights in 2001 and 2002; both flights were brokered by Space Adventures.

Related Links:

•  NASA Watch web site
•  RIA Novosti article