Cape Canaveral, Fla. – A rich entrepreneur scientist who bought his own ticket to the international space station said from orbit Tuesday that the trip was worth the millions of dollars he paid, and his only fear on launch day was not going.
“I’m having a great time. I mean, this is a dream come true,” Gregory Olsen said from the space station.
“This is my fourth day, and I’m really enjoying it,” he added.
As for the reported $20 million he paid for the 10-day trip, “It’s like the price-and-value argument. This is something I wanted to do, I love doing, so to me, yes, it’s worth the money.”
With his launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket Saturday from Kazakhstan, Olsen became the world’s third paying space tourist. He made his fortune with Sensors Unlimited Inc. of Princeton, N.J., a company that makes devices for fiber-optic communications and infrared imaging.
Olsen arrived at the space station Monday with NASA astronaut William McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev.
