NEW YORK, March 29 /PRNewswire/

'This is a Reaffirmation That There are Individuals Willing to Risk Their Lives for What They Believe in,' Says Tito, Last American Civilian in Space

Gregory Olsen, the 58-year-old CEO, research scientist, philanthropist and grandfather who plans to be the next civilian to visit the International Space Station tells Newsweek that the $20 million price tag for his trip is cheap because "it's hard to place a value on such a life-changing experience." Olsen wants to use the trip to educate and inspire students and to conduct his own experiments on the station; blastoff could take place as early as next October.

As they did with American Dennis Tito's flight in 2001 and South African Mark Shuttleworth's trip in 2002, Space Adventures of Arlington, Va., has brokered Olsen's ride with the cash -- strapped Russians on their Soyuz spacecraft -- the only vehicle currently making trips to the orbiting space station, reports San Francisco Correspondent Brad Stone in the April 5 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 29). Olsen's will be the first trip by a civilian to space since the Columbia disaster. "This is a reaffirmation that there are individuals who are willing to risk their lives for what they believe in," says Tito, who has advised Olsen on his voyage.

Olsen wants to inspire kids and even practice his own science in the zero-gravity environment 200 miles above Earth. He plans to bring along his company's infrared cameras so he can watch atomic reactions in the atmosphere, and to take advantage of unused equipment onboard the ISS to grow the specialized indium gallium arsenide crystals that are inside his company's products. "I want to be busy every hour," Olsen says. "There is a lot to do in space." Olsen says that astronaut Norm Thagard told him that during his five shuttle flights he had "'a childlike belief he would survive.' I feel that way, too."
 

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