For those of you eager to join me in space:
U.S. Space Tourist Ready for Flight Reuters Mar 23 2001 12:05AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. millionaire with a ticket to ride aboard the Russian Soyuz spaceship said on Thursday he is well-trained and ready for his planned $20 million flight next month to the International Space Station. American investment manager Dennis Tito, who will become the first tourist in space, said in an television interview he has had eight months of cosmonaut training, is in excellent health and well-prepared to hold his own with the professional astronauts.

In an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," Tito acknowledged that NASA and other space station partners are concerned that a nonprofessional could be a distraction as the crew executes complicated operations.

Tito said he is well-trained and would know what to do in the event of an emergency, such as a fire. "If a fire were to occur and the rest of the astronauts were disabled, I would know exactly what to do, how to put out the fire, how to locate it and how to deal with my own breathing," he said.

The 60-year-old would-be cosmonaut, who paid the Russians for a seat on Soyuz, also said he has had a lot of training in weightlessness and can put on a spacesuit in 25 seconds.

"I feel like I'm ready, I'm well trained," he added.

If the flight goes as planned, Tito said he will be more than a tourist on the upcoming Soyuz mission set for April 30.

"I have some duties on the launch vehicle. I will assist the commander as he instructs me," Tito explained. He added: "I've had a lot of systems training. I actually could operate a lot of the systems on the space station itself."

Tito, a former NASA employee, said he does not understand why the U.S. space agency is concerned about having a civilian aboard the space station. He said with shuttle flights now routine, his journey would be a great opportunity for NASA to get Americans excited about the space station.

"Being able to see space through the eyes of an ordinary civilian is an intriguing idea," Tito said in the interview.

In a separate CNN interview, a NASA official said now was not the right time for Tito to visit the space station because of the heavy work schedule. And there's the matter of ensuring the safety of an inadequately trained civilian, said William Readdy, a former astronaut and NASA's chief of space flight.

"If there would be anything off nominal, any kind of emergency, the crew up there, quite frankly, would not be able to accommodate a nonprofessional," he said.

Readdy noted that Tito was initially supposed to fly aboard the aging Russian space station Mir. But Mir was deemed unsafe and was being brought down to Earth on Friday.

Oh how I envy him.