Judgement day for space tourist

Preparations are under way for the next launch to the International Space Station

By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse

A meeting to decide whether Dennis Tito becomes the first tourist in space has been postponed until the end of the week.

Officials from the US and Russia were due to discuss the issue on Tuesday but sources in Moscow say the consultation has been pushed back.

Billionaire Tito, 60, has been training to ride into space later this month with two cosmonauts aboard a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).

The California land tycoon paid $20m (£14m) for the week-long trip, which was originally destined for Mir, but which was switched to the ISS when it became clear Mir was being ditched.

Moscow desperately needs the money, which will not be paid unless Tito leaves the ground, but the space agency Nasa has stubbornly resisted.

Opposition

Nasa has opposed Russia's desire to launch Tito. In the past week Nasa's boss, Dan Goldin, again voiced his opinion at an awards ceremony in Houston that Tito is not qualified.

But Russia says that Tito is well trained for the mission and that it has the right to send him to the ISS, quoting international agreements that gives it complete control over who flies on its spacecraft.

But the United States, the leading partner in the 16-nation space station consortium maintains that Tito lacks the training or Russian language skills to ensure his safety or that of the crews of the space station.

It is against the background of this disagreement that officials from Nasa and Russia were due to hold a teleconference on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve it.

But a Russian Space Agency spokesman said on Tuesday that the telephone conversation had been moved to the end of the week, for unspecified reasons.

Dennis Tito: "I've had this dream so long"

Nasa is upset that the Russians arranged Tito's space flight without informing it.

It hopes to persuade Moscow to postpone Tito's trip until October so he can train on US equipment.

Two weeks ago Nasa denied Tito entrance to a short training course attended by his cosmonaut crewmates Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.

Russia supplies the ISS with a fresh Soyuz spacecraft every six months to serve as an emergency lifeboat. Musabayev, Baturin and presumably Tito will return with one already docked to the ISS.

Meanwhile, Nasa is preparing for a Thursday launch of space shuttle Endeavour to the ISS.

If he goes, Tito's Soyuz rocket is scheduled to lift-off the same day Endeavour is due to leave the station because the shuttle and Soyuz cannot dock at the same time.