TY - JOUR TI - Through the lens of a space tourist AU -Julia Tcharfas PY - 2015 VL - IS - Autumn 2015 KW - citizen explorer KW - Dennis Tito KW - Energia KW - International Space Station KW - MirCorp KW - NASA KW - overview KW - Space Adventures KW - space tourist KW - sublime KW - tourism KW - world picture AB - This essay attempts to contextualise the experience and documentation of the world’s first space tourist, a multi-millionaire American businessman Dennis Tito, who vacationed on the International Space Station in 2001. The essay brings together two parallel elements of this historical event: the political transformation of the Russian space programme which made the private flight possible and the cultural significance and impact of the event. The first space tourist is both a direct product of the newly commercialised space programme and a reflection of a new worldview, with new values and expectations. N1 - See ‘Dennis Tito at the Pepperdine University, Dean's Executive Leadership Series’ available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7RzFWdkGmw (accessed 31 August 2015). N1 - The range of Soyuz rockets used from the mid-1960s until today is derived from the lineage of the Soviet R-7 rocket, also referred to as the ‘Semyorka’. The Soyuz rockets are a modified version of the R-7, which flew the first missiles, satellites, animals and people into space. Currently the Soyuz rocket is the main vehicle used to ferry cosmonauts, astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space Station. N1 - See ‘Dennis Tito speaks on business ventures and space adventures’ available on http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/events/dels/speakers/2006-2007/dtito/dtito.htm (accessed 31 August 2015). 1. See ‘Dennis Tito speaks on business ventures and space adventures’ available on http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/events/dels/speakers/2006-2007/dtito/dtito.htm (accessed 31 August 2015). N1 - Space Hotels have been proposed as early as 1967, with the first introduced by Barron Hilton, Hilton Hotels. For other unrealised space hotels, see GALACTIC SUITE hotel (2012) and Russia’s Commercial Space Station (2015). For privately funded commercial space competitions, see Ansari X Prize. To pre-purchase a commercial ticket to space, see Space Line for Earth from Virgin Galactic. N1 - Soviet acronym for the Council for International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space. N1 - Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 is a United States Federal Law authored by Ronald Reagan, giving power to private and consumer sector to capitalise on the ventures in outer space and space technology. The law was incorporated into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act, (1985) as an amendment in 1984. N1 - By the early 2000s, policy makers and public opinion had fully embraced the role of new private initiatives by corporations such as Virgin Galactic and Space X. N1 - For anticipation of the commercial transformation of the space programme and its law see Adolph, J, 2006, ‘The Recent Boom in Private Space Development and the Necessity of an International Framework Embracing Private Property Rights to Encourage Investment’ (The International Lawyer, Vol. 40, No. 4 (WINTER 2006)), pp 961–85; Leahy, B, 2006, ‘Space Access: The Private Investment vs. Public Funding Debate’, http://www.space.com/2401-space-access-private-investment-public-funding-debate.html (accessed 11 May 2015); and Freeland, S, 2005, ‘Up, Up and . . . Back: The Emergence of Space Tourism and Its Impact on the International Law of Outer Space’ (Chi. J. Int'l L. 1, 2). N1 - Space Adventures Ltd. has been the only company to date to broker the space flight of all of the seven international space tourists who visited the ISS. N1 - Apparently, the commercial never aired because Pepsi changed the design of the can. N1 - These included celebrities such as the Hollywood director James Cameron and a member of the boy band NSYNC, Lance Bass. N1 - For journalistic and popular press on ‘the world’s first space tourist’, see Moscow (Interfax) September 1, 2000, ‘Space Tourist To Prepare For Mir Flight’ SpaceDaily.com, http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mir-00zs.html (accessed on 11 May 2015); Knight W, 2001, ‘Russia plans space tourist outpost’, New Scientist, September http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1235-russia-plans-space-tourist-outpost.html#.VVEsUmaUfS8 (accessed on 11 May 2015); and ‘Inside the Mind of a Space Tycoon’, MSNBC http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077967/ns/technology (accessed 6 May 2001); and science-space/t/inside-mind-space-tycoon/#.VVEszmaUfS8 (accessed 11 May 2015). N1 - In the second century AD, wealthy Greek travellers ventured away from their homelands to see the buildings and art of other cultures, to experience sacred nature, new cuisines, and health practices. In a parody from the same century, the satirist Lucian writes of a trip to the Moon that seems to predict the preoccupations of twentieth century science fiction. In Lucian’s True History, his fictional travellers are swept away in a ship during a storm and travel to encounter an alien culture on the landscape of the Moon. N1 - Influencing global thinking such as James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis, see Lovelock, J, Marguilles, L, 1987, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (Oxford University Press) N1 - 15. From Russian transcripts of Yuri Gagarin’s conversation with ground control, available in Russian here http://epizodsspace.airbase.ru/bibl/i_tsk/zv-reis.html (accessed 3 September 2015) and in English here http://www.firstorbit.org/media/pdfs/Gagarin_Vostok-1-Transcript.pdf (accessed 3 September 2015). N1 - Coincidentally, Tito’s first image of the Earth is a mirror version of Titov’s and is taken from the window of nearly the same transport technology forty years later. N1 - ISS Live, available on http://spacestationlive.nasa.gov/timeline/ (accessed 11 May 2015). N1 - For advertisements that can be seen from space, see Patricia Laya ‘12 Ads That Can Be Seen From Space’, Business Insider, July 2011, available on http://www.businessinsider.com/ads-seen-from-space-2011-7 (accessed 11 May 2015). N1 - See Inspiration Mars http://www.inspirationmars.org/ (accessed 8 September 2015) PB - The Science Museum Group SN - 2054-5770 LA - eng DO - 10.15180/150407 UR - https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/space-tourist/ T2 - Science Museum Group Journal