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On April 28, 2001, the world’s first space tourist hitched a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The 60-year-old businessman and multimillionaire Dennis Tito funded his own trip to space, and it cost him $20 million. He originally signed a deal with a private company called MirCorp to fly to Russia’s aging Mir space station. Those plans fell through when Russia announced that Mir would deorbit in March of 2001.
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The Soyuz 2 crewmembers — American businessman Dennis Tito (left) and Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin — pose for a photo in the Zvezda Service Module on the International Space Station, in 2001. (Image credit: NASA)Image 2 of 3
American businessman Dennis Tito, the world’s first orbital space tourist, is seen training for his historic 2001 flight to the International Space Station. Tito launched in April 2001 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft thanks to a $20 million deal brokered by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. (Image credit: Space Adventures)Image 3 of 3
Dennis Tito became the first space tourist when he launched toward the International Space Station in April 2001. Here, he shares his experiences at a space conference in 2003. (Image credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center)
An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Explorer 11 satellite launched on April 27, 1061.9 (Image credit: NASA)Tito didn’t let that stop him from going to space. He then made a deal with another company called Space Adventures to go to the International Space Station instead. NASA wasn’t too happy about having guests at the space station, but the Russians had no problem taking Tito’s money and launching him in their Soyuz spacecraft along with two cosmonauts.
They met up with the crew of Expedition 2 at the International Space Station and stayed there for about a week before safely returning to Earth.
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Hanneke Weitering is an editor at Space.com with 10 years of experience in science journalism. She has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos.
