U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen to become another space tourist

Space tourism has become a popular hobby of rich Americans. We won't have to wait long to see a queue of those eager to conquer the other worlds.

Russia's space agency has signed a space tourist contract with U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen, a spokesman said Wednesday, reports the AP.

Olsen could fly to the international space station as early as October, said Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian agency.

American millionaire Gregory Olsen, started theoretical studies in Zvezdny Gorodok (Stella Town) in the Moscow Region last April.

Gregory Olsen grew rich, working in the optic sphere. Earlier it was reported, that Olsen was to pay about $20 million for his space flight in the company with two professional cosmonauts, which had been scheduled for April 2005.

Mr. Olsen himself prefers to be regarded as a private researcher, not a space tourist. Dr. Olsen will become a private space scientist and will make his own experiments in orbit.

The Sensor Unlimited Inc. company, headed by Gregory Olsen, develops and produces high-sensitive film and photo cameras and actively cooperates with the US National Aeronautics & Space Agency (NASA). Apart from testing a new model of the company's apparatus, Mr. Olsen plans to make experiments in growing crystals on board the ISS.

The first space tourist, American Dennis Tito, was on board the ISS in 2001. The second one, Marc Shuttleworth, visited the station in 2002.