Space tourist still hoping to make flight

Would-be space traveller Gregory Olsen remains optimistic that his flight to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket will go ahead even though it is temporarily on hold due to an undisclosed medical issue.

The 59-year-old New Jersey physicist plans to do experiments on his trip and is hoping Russian officials will give him the go-ahead at the end of next week, said Robert Volmer, spokesman for Space Adventures, which brokered the trip.

“We still have every confidence that he will end up flying,” Volmer said. “He’s extremely eager to go.”

Volmer has advised Olsen, the co-founder of infrared camera maker Sensors Unlimited, of Princeton, not to give interviews or disclose the “potential condition” to prevent jeopardising the eight-day, £12m (€17.9m) trip.

“Whether or not that condition exists remains to be seen,” Volmer said, adding that dozens of US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have failed rigorous physical exams over the last 40 years and still flown on missions.

Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on June 23 that an official at Russia’s cosmonaut training centre in Star City said Olsen had been rejected for health reasons. Space Adventures of Arlington, Virginia, quickly disputed that, saying no final decision had been made.

The journey is scheduled for April 2005, although there is a possibility Olsen could go sooner.