Astronauts Deny Frosty Tito Treatment

 By Todd Halvorson
 Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief
 posted: 05:30 pm ET
 17 May 2001

 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA officials on Thursday refuted Russian claims
 that American astronauts were ordered to be less than hospitable to
 California financier Dennis Tito during his recent $20 million tourist
 trip to the International Space Station.

 What's more, one of the U.S. astronauts - station flight engineer Jim Voss
 - said the world's first fare-paying space tourist posed no problems
 and was "very friendly" during his six days on the international outpost.

 "It was, you know, an interesting time having Mr. Tito aboard, and he did
 not cause any problems," Voss said in a space-to-ground interview. "I was
 real pleased with that. He was a nice gentleman -- very friendly, very
 outgoing, and it didn't cause us any serious problems."

 In an ongoing war of words spawned by NASA’s opposition to Tito’s flight,
 his two cosmonaut crewmates - Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin - claimed
 Tuesday that the maverick millionaire received an icy reception from
 Americans aboard the station.

 Musabayev felt Voss and fellow American flight engineer Susan Helms had
 been instructed by NASA to "keep their distance" from Tito, who was flown
 to the station by the Russian Aviation and Space Agency despite opposition
 from all other project partners.

 Baturin, meanwhile, bemoaned the fact that the Americans and their Russian
 station commander - Yuri Usachev - didn't have a warm dinner waiting for
 the crew, which ferried a new Soyuz lifeboat up to the outpost.

 The cosmonauts also considered the absence of a traditional Russian
 welcome gift - bread and salt - as a slight to the Soyuz crew and Tito.

 NASA station project officials said no offense was intended.

 The absence of exuberance, they added, more likely was due to the fact
 that Usachev and his American colleagues were "dead tired" from a flurry
 of work and onboard difficulties that preceded the April 30 arrival of
 the Soyuz crew.

 During the two weeks leading up to the taxi mission, the station crew:

 * Maneuvered an older Soyuz lifeboat from one station port to another to
   make room for its replacement - a job that called for the outpost to be
   prepared for a long-term evacuation in case a serious problem forced the
   crew to abandon ship and return to Earth during the move.
 * Pack up almost a ton of trash and surplus equipment destined to be
   loaded aboard an Italian moving van and brought back to Earth by a crew
   aboard shuttle Atlantis.
 * Prepare for a series of critical spacewalks aimed at erecting the
   station's new $600 million Canadian construction crane, which was
   delivered by the visiting shuttle crew on April 21.
 * Scramble to recover the station's three main U.S. command-and-control
   computers, which failed during the midst of the shuttle’s eight-day stay
   at the outpost.
 * Ready the station for the arrival of the Soyuz crew 16 hours after the
   shuttle's April 29 departure.

 "We basically tried to schedule the same type of hatch-opening welcome
 ceremony, and hatch-closing farewell ceremony that we always have," said
 NASA flight director John Curry.

 "I will admit that during that period of time - remembering that the
 shuttle undocked less than 24 hours before the docking of that [Soyuz
 taxi] mission - they probably weren't as ready to have a big ceremony and
 those kind of activities," he said.

 "It doesn't have anything to do with Dennis Tito. It had to do with just
 the fact that the crew was exhausted."

 Curry also refuted the contention that Voss and Helms were told to keep
 their distance from Tito. Usachev and his American colleagues, however,
 were told to take special precautions because neither Tito nor his
 cosmonaut colleagues had been fully trained on the operation of critical
 systems within the U.S. segment of the station.

 "We wanted to make sure we gave them lots of time for safety briefings,
 [and] that they were always available to escort Mr. Tito and the other
 two cosmonauts as required into the U.S. segment to make sure they knew
 where the dangers lie," he said.

 "Over and above that, I don't think there was any special guidance given
 to them."

 As it turned out, Tito's stay at the station became a much-needed break
 for the resident station crew. NASA already had decided to put off
 critical tests of the new Canadian robot armuntil after Tito and his
 crewmates departed the outpost, but most other planned work during their
 stay was canceled because of the computer problems.

 Consequently, Voss inferred that any real tension created by Tito's trip
 occurred not in space but back on Earth.

 "I think the major problems were caused by the lack of coordination on
 the ground and the difficulties between the Russian space agency and the
 rest of the partners," Voss said.

 "As far as the crew was concerned, we did okay up here, got along fine,
 and it was a reasonable week for us. We got a little bit of rest, which
 was pleasant."

 That's not to say, however, that Voss thinks tourist trips to the station
 should become commonplace without what he and other NASA officials consider
 requisite training.

 "This is not just a normal place that a tourist would go. There are a lot
 of hazardous things going on around here," the veteran astronaut said.

 "If you moved a certain valve the wrong way, you could cause some very
 serious damage, maybe even death onboard. So it's serious business being
 up here, and it requires training," he added.

 "But any normal human who's healthy and who goes through the required
 training one day, I think, will be able to come up to the International
 Space Station."

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