The director of "Titanic" also wants to fly into space after he was a candidate to fly to Mir like Tito but has not yet had time to settle the payment
The director of the movie "Titanic", James Cameron, is negotiating with the Russian space agency to visit the International Space Station. Cameron also wants to take this opportunity to walk in space. This is what the newspaper "USAI" reported yesterday (Friday). Today".
If the trip goes ahead, Cameron will follow in the footsteps of the American businessman Dennis Tito, the first tourist to go into space and took off today to the International Space Station. A senior Russian official told the newspaper reporter that Cameron will sign an agreement to travel to space within two to three weeks. Cameron's production company did not respond to this news.
Daniel Goldin, director of the American space agency NASA, said that James Cameron discussed with him a possible trip to the International Space Station, but he is not aware of any negotiations with the Russians. "We did this exclusively with Denis Tito. From our point of view, only professionals will go into space, until the conclusion of the protocol between NASA and the Russian space agency, which is in the preparation stages", said Goldin.
The newspaper adds that Cameron plans to film a documentary series, a XNUMXD film and a series of programs for the "Fox News" television network in space.
The spacecraft carrying the first space tourist entered its orbit The "Soyuz" spacecraft was successfully launched this morning (Saturday) to the International Space Station, at the predetermined time, and entered its orbit. In the spaceship is the "first space tourist" - the American Dennis Tito. Earlier it was reported that NASA asked the Russian space agency to delay the launch by two days, because it wanted to extend the mission of the American space shuttle "Endeavour". The execution of the mission was delayed due to a computer malfunction, which thwarted an experiment with a robotic arm installed at the station.
The Russian space agency said that an agreement was reached with NASA according to which if the shuttle Endeavor is still connected to the International Space Station when Soyuz arrives, the Russian spacecraft will wait in space until Endeavor leaves the station. The rocket carrying the spacecraft took off from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan.
Tito, 60 years old, is an aeronautical engineer by training and a former employee of NASA (the American space agency). He paid Russia twenty million for the flight to the International Space Station. He is supposed to arrive at the station on Monday and stay there for six days. His time in space, including round-trip flights, is ten days.
At the beginning of the week, NASA, Japan and the European and Canadian Space Agency, with apparent reluctance, agreed to Tito's visit to the space station. This is after they managed to get Russia to commit that the Russian cosmonauts who will fly with Tito, Yuri Batorin and Talegat Mosayev, will carefully follow his steps on the station. It was also agreed that Tito would only be allowed to stay in the Russian area of the station, and if he caused any damage to the station, he would have to cover all the repair costs.
NASA justified its opposition to launching Tito on safety and organizational grounds. According to the agency, at this stage, a visit by an untrained person could harm both the safety of the astronauts building the station and the safety of Tito himself. Tito's critics say that the American tycoon bought his way into space without considering the progress of the station's construction.
Tito was supposed to fly to the Russian space station Mir. But after the Russians stopped Mir's operation last month and crashed it in the ocean, Tito changed his flight destination to the International Space Station. NASA sent Tito a request to delay his visit to a later date, but Tito refused.
