biography
| biography:
| American multimillionaire businessman. Before moving into a highly successful business career, he was a rocket scientist at the US space agency NASA's jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, CA. On 28 April 2001, he made history as the world's first ‘space tourist’, having completed nine months training for the mission at a military base near Moscow. Paying a reputed $20 million (£14 million) to the Russians, he boarded a Soyuz spacecraft, along with two Russian cosmonauts, and was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his 6-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). His return flight landed successfully in the Kazakhstan desert on 6 May 2001. In April 2002, South African millionaire businessman Mark Shuttleworth became the world's second space tourist when he blasted off from Baikonur for a short stay at the ISS. |
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