Apr 25 2002
From The Space Library
The Russian Soyuz TM-34 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:27 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)~ 1 :27 a.m. (EST). The mission, designated Soyuz 4 Taxi Flight, carried three crew members~ Commander Yuri P. Gidzenko of Russia, Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth. The mission's main purpose was to deliver a new Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS for use as an emergency lifeboat for the ISS's permanent three-member crew. In addition, major media noted that Shuttleworth had paid the Russian Space Agency a fee of approximately US$20 million to fly on Soyuz to the ISS. (NASA, “Soyuz 4 Taxi Flight Crew,” http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/crew/exp4/taxi4/index.html (accessed 12 August 2002); Houston Chronicle, “Space Tourist No. 2,” 25 April 2002.)
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