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Russia-US crew and tourist blast off
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-01 16:34
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A Russia-U.S. two-man crew and the world's
third space tourist blasted off from Earth on Saturday, bound for orbit and the
International Space Station.
A Russian Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft, with the ISS
crew of U.S. space tourist Gregory Olsen, astronaut William McArthur of
the U.S. and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev of Russia, blasts off from the
launching pad at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 1, 2005.
[Reuters] | The cigar-shaped Soyuz rocket climbed
into a blue morning sky from the barren steppe of Central Asia, arcing higher
and higher until only a ball of flame could be seen.
"It was wonderful. It was magnificent. It was beautiful," Michael Griffin,
the head of U.S. space agency NASA, told Reuters at the Baikonur space center in
Kazakhstan.
On board the Russian spacecraft were U.S. Commander William McArthur, Russian
Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, and American entrepreneur and scientist Gregory
Olsen, who is due to spend about a week in orbit. The crew face a daunting
6-month stint.
Olsen, rich enough to afford a reported $20 million ticket, will spend his
time in space conducting experiments. He then hitches a ride back to Earth with
the outgoing U.S.-Russian crew.
"He's doing much more in space than simply looking out of
the window," said Eric Anderson, chief executive of Space Adventures, the
company which arranged the trip.
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