Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

THIS WEEK, the founder of Cirque de Soleil donned a red nose and a space suit and jetted off to the International Space Station. There have been seven space tourists in recent years. So what does it take, how much are they paying and what have they done while they were on their space holiday? asks SHANE HEGARTY

DENNIS TITO (US):The first tourist in space, in 2001 he spent almost eight days above the Earth, orbiting it 128 times. Having originally worked at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab, he went on to make his many millions through an investment company. There’s no official idea of how much he paid for his space flight, but it was rumoured to be as much as $20 million. There was controversy over his flight, with the Americans unwilling to train with him. Luckily, the Russians found his money attractive enough to give him his week on the International Space Station, where the US astronauts were described as giving him a less than friendly response. Otherwise, Tito had travel sickness and got a scratch on his head. “But such minor things may happen to any rookie cosmonaut,” said the mission commander.