Millionaire ‘excited’ about space science trip

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

Inventor/entrepreneur Greg Olsen may not be due to go into orbit as the international space station's third paying guest until October, but some of his company's equipment is already at work there.

"I feel like I'm part of it already," the 60-year-old New Jersey millionaire told reporters at NASA's Johnson Space Center on Thursday, during a preview of his Oct. 1 launch aboard a Russian Soyuz craft.

"I'm ready to go, and I'm very excited," he said.

Olsen is to take a seat alongside the space station's next professional crew, NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev, as they lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Ten days later, while the new crew gets settled for their six-month tour of duty, Olsen is to return to Earth with the station's current crew, Russia's Sergei Krikalev and NASA's John Phillips.

There's a $20 million price tag for such a passenger flight, which is being purchased from Russia's Federal Space Agency with the aid of Virginia-based Space Adventures. Two other millionaires have paid for similar flights: California's Dennis Tito in 2001 and South Africa's Mark Shuttleworth in 2002.

Scientist, not tourist
Olsen, founder and chairman of New Jersey-based Sensors Unlimited, has tried to avoid the label "space tourist," saying that he intends to use the opportunity to make astronomical and Earth observations with his own company's optical and near-infrared sensors.

Sensors Unlimited made one of the near-infrared cameras used to monitor the space shuttle Discovery's ascent last month, and Olsen noted that another one of his firm's sensors was onboard the space station as part of a camera system.

During his own trip to the station, Olsen intends to test a spectrometer built by the University of Virginia, his alma mater, which incorporates parts from Sensors Unlimited. However, Olsen indicated on Thursday that the equipment had not yet been cleared for spaceflight.

"Things are changing daily, just as they are with the shuttle and the ISS," he told reporters.

To be sure, Olsen's interest in the space station trip isn't purely scientific. He said he was "old enough to remember" the exploits of spaceflight's pioneers, including Russia's Yuri Gagarin and NASA's John Glenn, and wished he could go into space himself.

"When I was younger, it was just a dream ... a dream I just never thought I'd get to," he said.

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