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Bill Press is a syndicated columnist and the co-host of CNN's Crossfire, which airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and The Spin Room, which airs Monday-Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET.

NASA should welcome Dennis Tito, not reject him

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- Bummer! Seems like a guy just can't kick back and relax anymore without getting dumped on.

Take Dennis Tito. His idea of a good time is to go for a ride in space. And he's made it! A guest of the Russian government aboard the International Space Station. So what if it cost him $20 million for a round-trip ticket? He can afford it. But the poor guy no sooner arrived at his high playstation than Americans got on their high horse. Reading e-mails received at CNN, it's clear many people think Tito should be strapped down alongside Timothy McVeigh and executed for self-indulgence.

Space tourism is a waste of money, they complain. Allowing Tito to pay his own way into space is an insult to our professional astronauts. He's an idiot. He'll just get in the way. He should have contributed that $20 million to charity, instead of blowing it on a one-time joy ride. Just think how many new textbooks could have been provided to kids in the ghetto with that money, blah, blah, blah. Worse yet, he's a traitor for giving his money to a former communist country.

Of course, the outrage of average Americans reflects, and is no doubt propelled by, equal outrage from U.S. space officials. Tito only approached the Soviet Union after NASA rejected his application, turned down his money and refused to train him. They even tried, unsuccessfully, to scuttle this space mission as long as Tito was onboard. And they finally agreed to cooperate, as long as Tito, like a kid in a Toys R Us, promised to pay for any toys he broke. What party poopers!

The biggest grouch of all was NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, who vowed it would be a "cold day in hell" before NASA ever welcomed a space tourist on an American mission -- even tough it was NASA who sent the first tourist, teacher Christy McAuliffe, into space aboard the ill-fated Challenger. And Goldin heaped praise on Titanic director James Cameron who, like Tito, is hot to experience outer space and can afford the ticket -- but who, unlike Tito, promised to wait until the American space program was willing to indulge him and not run off to don the armor of a space competitor.

Enough already! It's time to stop burying Dennis Tito and start praising him.

First of all, Tito is no crackpot, and no stranger to space science. The 60-year-old California multimillionaire once worked for NASA's jet propulsion program. He then went into the private sector and founded his own firm, Wilshire Associates, where he made a fortune advising others on what stocks to buy and made his own investments. The Wilshire Index, one of the most reliable market indicators, is his baby.

Ever since he worked at NASA, space travel has been Tito's dream. Too old to become an astronaut, he finally realized the only way he would ever get there was as a tourist. So he signed up with Russia, the only country that would take him and was more than happy to pocket his $20 million -- one-seventh of their $145 million annual space budget. After months of training, he blasted off with the cosmonaut crew on April 28, is now enjoying, literally, an out-of-this-world experience on the ISS. And, much to NASA's chagrin, he hasn't broken anything yet.

What's the harm? None. What's the good? Plenty. By pioneering his way into space, Tito has busted the NASA myth that you have to be a professional astronaut and devote a lifetime of training to survive space travel. He has shown that anyone, even an old geezer, is fit for space, even if they can't yet afford the ticket. And he's demonstrated the exciting potential for space travel, space tourism and, in some not too distant day, space colonization.

For Tito, it's no big deal. "I had a great trip here," he said on his first day in space. "I don't know about this adaptation problem they're always talking about. I've already adapted. I love space."

Instead of spurning Dennis Tito, NASA should welcome him with open arms. After all, in just a few days, he has taught us more about the exciting potential of space travel than NASA learned in years of repetitive experiments with tadpoles or mice. And, besides, who are they kidding? NASA, too, could use the money.



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