NASA Clears American Investment Tycoon for Launch on Russian Rocket.

Publication: The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 The Miami Herald

Byline: Martin Merzer

Apr. 25--An American investment tycoon with a taste for high-flying adventure and a spacesuit full of cash was grudgingly cleared by NASA Tuesday to visit the still-under-construction space station.

Dennis Tito, 60, will blast off Saturday aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, arrive Monday at the International Space Station and spend six days 199 miles above Earth, orbiting the planet every 90 minutes as the world's first space tourist.

The spacefare: $20 million, paid to the money-strapped Russian space agency. At least he gets a window seat.

"I think tourists in space are inevitable," said Mike Hawes, a...

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