Joyous South African enjoying view on space station

 



  CAPE CANAVERAL - (AP) -- A South African space tourist received 
a warm welcome aboard the international space station on 
Saturday and settled in for an eight-day, seven-night stay that 
cost him $20 million.

  Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth is only the second 
person to pay his own way into space, and by the look of it, he 
considers the money well spent.

  The 28-year-old smiled broadly as he floated into the space 
station and was embraced by its three occupants. One orbit, or 1 
  hours later, South African President Thabo Mbeki called to 
congratulate the first African citizen in space.

  ''It's amazingly roomy,'' Shuttleworth told the president. 
``Although it's very, very large, we have to move very 
carefully. As you can see around us, there are tons of very 
precious and very sophisticated equipment. We hope that we will 
be good guests.''

  As for his liftoff two days earlier from Kazakhstan, ''I had 
moments of terror, moments of sheer upliftment and 
exhilaration,'' Shuttleworth said.

  ``I have truly never seen anything as beautiful as the Earth 
from space. I can't imagine anything that could surpass that.''

  The world's latest space tourist -- dubbed an Afronaut back home 
-- has generated huge excitement in South Africa.

  ''The whole continent is proud that, at last, we have one of our 
own people from Africa up in space,'' said Mbeki, taking part in 
celebrations for Freedom Day, marking the 1994 elections that 
ended Apartheid. ``It's a proud Freedom Day because of what 
you've done.''

  Shuttleworth's parents were relieved to see their 
adventure-seeking son, an entrepreneur who made his fortune off 
the Internet, safely aboard space station Alpha. They watched 
from Russian Mission Control outside Moscow as the Soyuz capsule 
smoothly docked with the space station 250 miles up.

  ''It was one of the dangerous procedures and my stomach was in a 
real knot before it started. But I'm feeling much better now,'' 
said his mother, Ronelle Shuttleworth.

  The three men who have been living on the orbiting outpost since 
December, and won't return to Earth until June, were delighted 
to have company. ''It's always great to see new faces,'' said 
American astronaut Carl Walz.

  Shuttleworth and his Soyuz crewmates, Russian cosmonaut Yuri 
Gidzenko and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, accomplished 
their primary job with the successful docking of their 
spacecraft. It will now serve as the space station's lifeboat.

  When the three leave next Saturday night, they will use the 
Soyuz that has been attached to the station for the past six 
months.

  One year ago today, California money manager Dennis Tito became 
the world's first paying space tourist, courtesy of the 
Russians.

  NASA opposed Tito's trip, saying he would interfere with space 
station work and possibly even endanger the crew. The Russians 
prevailed, however, and the rift between the two countries' 
space programs lasted for months.

  To avoid further conflict, NASA and the space agencies of 
Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan established criteria for future 
space station visitors. Shuttleworth met all the guidelines and 
went through eight months of cosmonaut training in Russia and 
one week of instruction at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

  Because of his U.S. training, Shuttleworth will have more leeway 
aboard the space station than Tito did.

  Shuttleworth is flying several science experiments, including 
one for AIDS research. He wore a white patch with an embroidered 
red ribbon on his blue cosmonaut uniform to symbolize the fight 
against AIDS.

  He also plans to chat with South African schoolchildren via ham 
radio over the next week.

  Long before his flight, he created the ''Hip To Be Square'' 
campaign -- or Hip2B2 -- to promote science and math education 
in South Africa.

  Shuttleworth, who is among the world's younger space travelers, 
joined his country's president on Saturday in calling for ``a 
need for Africans to embrace the future and the importance of 
education, and especially science and mathematics.''

  ''I hope that our first steps into space will influence the 
generation to make that part of their lives, too,'' he said.