Soyuz TM-32

Mission Profile

Overview

Soyuz TM-32 carried the world's first self-funded space tourist into orbit. On 28 April 2001, American engineer-financier Dennis Tito, who reportedly paid Space Adventures around US$20 million, lifted off alongside commander Talgat Musabayev and flight engineer Yuri Baturin on the ISS visiting mission EP-1. Tito, a former NASA JPL mission analyst turned investment-firm founder, had trained for months at Star City over NASA's vocal objections. After docking with the young International Space Station, he spent nearly eight days in orbit, floating in the Zvezda module, photographing Earth and, by his own account, fulfilling a lifelong dream deferred for forty years. The crew returned aboard Soyuz TM-31, while TM-32 stayed as the station's fresh lifeboat. Tito's flight cracked open commercial human spaceflight and set the template for the orbital tourism that followed.

Crew

Key Milestones

1. 2001-04-28

   Launch from Baikonur at 07:37 UTC with Tito, Musabayev and Baturin

2. 2001-04-30

   Docking with the International Space Station; Tito becomes first paying tourist aboard

3. 2001-05-06

   EP-1 crew returns to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-31 after ~7d 22h

4. 2001-10-31

   Soyuz TM-32 vehicle returns with the Andromède (TM-33) crew, ending its station duty

Key Achievements

• Carried Dennis Tito, the world's first self-funded space tourist, into orbit

• Opened the era of commercial private human spaceflight

• Delivered a fresh Soyuz lifeboat to the early International Space Station

Related Missions

Sources

1. Wikipedia — Soyuz TM-32
2. RussianSpaceWeb — Soyuz TM-32 mission