Gregory Olsen goes to space on a Russian Soyuz rocket

Gregory Olsen goes to space on a Russian Soyuz rocket

The third space tourist Gregory Olsen has finally gone on his little 10-day vacation onboard a Russian Soyuz rocket. He would be visiting the International Space Station on this journey to space for which he is rumored to have paid around USD 20 million. The spacecraft left for the journey at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur launch site at 0955 local time (0355GMT).

The other two space tourists who have had this wonderful experience are American Dennis Tito in 2001 and South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002. Olsen spoke to the media before his scheduled launch: “I’ll be most relaxed and happy after the rocket takes off. Nowadays, everybody can fly every week. The same will be true with spaceflight – there will be more tourists after me.”

He is being accompanied by Commander William McArthur from the US, and Russian Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev. These two astronauts are the next batch of residents of the International Space Station. With Space Shuttle fleet grounded, USA is depending upon the Russian crafts for delivering the supplies and the crew to the space. The crew would be replacing the existing crew of Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips on the ISS who have been there since April.

Sergei, John, and Olsen would be returning back to the earth on October 11.