Through hardship to the stars

As wikipedia says, space tourism is, paid by private flights into space or near-earth orbit for entertainment or research purposes, rather dry and only partially true, but this will be the case with beer. At the moment, when mentioning the term, it makes sense to consider flights on the ISS and suborbital flights on the SpaceShipOne (June 21, 2004) and SpaceShipTwo (ticket sales in Russia began on June 23, 2008, and tests of the ship began this year) Virgin Galactic .

Let's start with the last.

The name of Richard Branson at the hearing of all more or less interested in the topic, without diminishing his merit is to say that Mr. Branson is just a businessman, although very talented. I think that no one will tell about himself better than himself, so I attach his autobiography to the article.
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The name of Bert Rutan is not so well known, although it is to him that we owe the appearance of the possibility of commercial suborbital flights, since it was he who designed SpaceShipOne , delivered by the White Knight carrier plane, also its design, to 15 km from where it continued its flight. This historic flight has allowed Bert to win the X-Prize , established by Peter Diamandis , and this is nothing less than $ 10 million.

Bert Rutan is a classic genius from the aircraft design department, who already in eight years (!) Built a working model of an aircraft of his own design, and at 16 he made his first independent flight as a pilot. Scaled Composites , the company of Bert , is engaged in translating the plans of a genius into life. SpaceShipTwo , like its predecessor, SpaceShipOne , was built by her, this year the trials began, and commercial launches are planned for 2011 .

And at this time in orbit ...

year 2001

Dennis Anthony Tito

Born August 8, 1940 in New York. In 1962, he graduated from the College of Engineering at the University of New York and received a bachelor's degree in astronautics and aeronautics. From 1963 he worked as an aerospace engineer in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory . Participated in the flight program of automatic stations to Mars and Venus. Engaged in ballistic flights of interplanetary stations of the type "Mariner" .

In 1964 he received a Master of Science degree (engineering technology) from the Rensaler Polytechnic Institute. In 1970, he completed a training course at the Aderson School of Management at the University of California at Los Angeles to receive a Ph.D. in financial activities. In 1972, he founded Wilshire Associates Inc. in Santa Monica, California. Currently, this company is a leading service provider in the field of management, consulting and technology investment.

In 2000, he was going to fly to the Mir station , but did not grow together, our government decided to flood it. As you know, the money was spent a lot, so on December 28 of the same year it was included in the main crew of the first Russian expedition visiting the ISS .

In the period from February 12 to April 10, 2001, I was preparing for flight as part of the main crew of the ISS-T1 .

In the summer of 2003, he was included on the board of the X-Prize Foundation .

2002

Mark Shuttleworth

Regarding Mark I will not be sprayed in detail, for wikipedia knows it . And on Habré it is generally persona grata . Although something is certainly worth telling.

He basically earned his fortune by selling consulting firm Thawte , which he had created during his last year at the university, in which he had been working for four years.

As a fairly wealthy and very generous person, Mark is actively engaged in financing social projects and free software in South Africa, taking for example Freedom Toaster , a network of kiosks in different cities where free software is recorded on a CD to all who need it.


In 2000, he formed a venture group called HBD (an abbreviation of the phrase “Here Be Dragons” , which, according to legends, indicated white spots on old maps). This group seeks to invest in innovative South African companies with global potential. Dragon Norman is the talisman of HBD Venture Capital .

On April 25, 2002, he fulfilled his cherished dream by flying into space aboard the Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft . During the flight, he conducted four experiments devoted to the study of stem cells, muscle training in space, measurement of metabolism and protein crystallization.

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2005 year

Gregory Olsen

And this gentleman became rich even when many of those who read this article walked under the table. And Gregory Olsen considered the development and production of high-precision equipment (infrared cameras, various sensors, artificial crystals, etc.) and earned his capital on the very fact that neither is a high-tech business region.

At the moment he is the president and chairman of the board of directors of Sensors Unlimited Inc. , one of the founders of which is.

From the entire list, one of the most controversial “tourists” , the path to the stars for which was very thorny (here the film’s name and this article, “Through thorns to the stars” , fit like nothing :) since it was originally planned for the 2005 spring expedition, then the plans were going to be replayed by including it on the autumn expedition of 2004, after which the Roscosmos bureaucratic machine misfired, or even the transfer of its flight was a rumor, now it is not known, and not so important.

As a result, in the spring of 2004 he passed a medical examination for admission to special training during which he was rejected by the servants of the syringe and enema. After some time, comrades in white coats took pity or Mr. Olsen's health recovered extremely quickly (it is also not clear how so?), And it was recommended to include him in the main crew of the Soyuz TMA-7 . And again the medical board for admission, but this time everything went fine.

After a rather long special training with one space “tourist” in the world, there was more, and the treasury replenished $ 20 million .

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2006

Anyusha Ansari

The key role in the fate of this heroine of the article was played by the decision of the parents who sent her at the age of eighteen to the states where she received a good education and later remained there to live.

After marriage, Anyusha turned her head into the family business (in 1993, Ansari founded Telecom Technologies, Inc. ), as a CVO . After 7 years, the sale of the company turned to the Ansari family a grand scandal in which the buyer ( Sonus Networks ) accused them of insider trading.

Mrs. Ansari’s biography is also active in the X-Prize , with the Ansari family becoming the title sponsor of the prize, and the trophy itself was renamed Ansari X-Prize .

On September 18, 2006, the ship on board of which our heroine was successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome, and Anyusha Ansari became the first cosmic (or rather orbital :) blogger .

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2007

Charles Simon (Carol Simon)

You can easily write a whole book about this person, but unfortunately there is a format, so I will limit myself to a few. Of the entire list, Charles is the nicest, although this is, of course, a moot point. Below I will simply list some things that confirm this.

He started programming at school, after which he began to work in his specialty (it sounds a bit strange, because at that time he officially didn’t have it). A few years later, Mr. Simony laid the foundation for the existence of today's caste of “office plankton” , developing the “grandfather” of all modern office suites - the text editor Bravo in the IT forge Xerox PARC .

After some time, he began working at Microsoft , where he worked for 21 years. During this time, he visited various posts, participated in the development of most products and internal standards of the company, for example, the Hungarian notation (hello to programmers) - his work (good or not) is not the topic of this article). He left the corporation in 2002 in order to create his company Intentional Software .

In addition to the brilliant programming career, Charles is a very versatile person. He is a member of the National Engineering Academy of the USA , an honorary doctor of the University of Pecs in Hungary, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 2006 he was awarded the Order of Merit in his homeland.

Here's a nerd, right? Here and not only, Charles Simon is a licensed pilot of multi-engine aircraft, jet planes and helicopters, who by the end of 2006 had flown more than 2,000 hours.

Of all the "tourists", he was the only one on the ISS twice, in 2007 and this year.

2008

Richard Garriot

Here, too, writing a lot is just silly in a wiki about him a rather detailed dossier .

This "tourist" decided to fly into space even when he was a boy (in the USSR, however, all the boys wanted to be astronauts), and there were good reasons for this, because Richard's father is also an astronaut. In fact, Garriot is a real “lucky” person , nature has awarded him a rare talent, the ability to create worlds, and he was able to turn his hobby into a profitable business with the main milestones of which can be found in the wiki article.

Richard Garriott is the "dad" of the Ultima gaming universe, including one of the first MMORPGs - Ultima Online . In some way, he had a hand in the “Line” (here I just refrain from commenting, get up from the table and clap my hands in a token of appreciation).

In connection with the main theme of the article, it is worth mentioning that Garriot is the owner of a copy of the first Earth satellite and the first Soviet lunar rover (which is really on the Moon :), and also serves on the Board of Trustees of X-Prize and the Board of Directors of Space Adventures.

On October 12, 2008, Mr. Garriott officially became the second person in the family who was in space. During the orbital flight, it was the first of the "tourists" to carry out commercial experiments in orbit related to the crystallization of proteins.

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year 2009

Guy Laliberte and Charles Simon (above)

Guy is the most unusual and outlandish visitor of the ISS , whom you can imagine. Just look at the headlines - “Clown in Orbit” , etc.

In fact, Guy is a fifty - year - old boy who continues to have fun and fool around his entire adult life, but, like many other gifted people, he was able to put talent into his service.

At 25, he and his group of like-minded people created their own circus - the Circus of the Sun , and this is not as easy as you might think, because circus artists are mostly caste, their entire profession is shrouded in mystery, the secrets of the profession have been passed on from parents to children and Most of the less well-known circus figures belong to the old dynasties of circus performers.

He was the first to achieve a unique fusion of cultures and circus genres. From the very beginning of the circus, he heads the creative creative group of the circus and participates in the creation of each show, trying to raise circus performances to the rank of high art.

He is also very calm about the attempts to videotape his shows, since no matter how high definition video it is, he is simply unable to convey the full range of sensations arising in the process of watching performances by Cirque du Soleil artists.

In the not too distant 2007, Guy founded the One Drop charity foundation, which fights poverty around the world, providing residents of different countries with constant access to drinking water.

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PS

I think no one will argue that each of the heroes of this article is an extraordinary, talented and interesting person who has something to learn and we are lucky to be their contemporaries.

Now drop everything and go to fulfill your dreams,

and may the Force be with you! [ © ]

Files for the article:

→ Autobiography of Richard Branson
→ Themed wallpapers .

To this topic:

→ Mark Shuttleworth Home Page ,
→ One of the best sites about space,
→ About cosmotourism on the website of the World of Science Fiction magazine
→ Internet magazine "Astronautics News" .