The world's first paying space tourist, Dennis Tito, made a textbook landing on the Kazakh steppe early today, ending an historic voyage marred by a bitter Russia-US spat. Slight applause rippled around Russian space-flight control outside Moscow as it was announced on the public address system that the Soyuz spacecraft had landed.
US millionaire Tito and Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin blasted off for the $95 billion International Space Station on April 28, leaving behind them a furious row between US and Russian space officials about the propriety of Tito's voyage.
But there had been no sign of ill feeling between Tito and the ISS crew as the American businessmen and his fellow cosmonauts exchanged goodbye handshakes and bear hugs shortly before the Soyuz craft undocked from the space station. Although Tito suffered from sickness during his first days in space, there were no reports of any ill health during today's return voyage.
