Shuttleworth gets 'top marks'
2002-04-11 13:24
Cape Town - Mark Shuttleworth is ready for his launch into space - and is interested in a possible second space flight.
The Russian space agency announced that Shuttleworth and his two colleagues had passed the final space examinations with flying colours and were ready for their flight to the International Space Station (ISS) expected to be launched on April 25.
Shuttleworth said he was "proud to take the South African flag, that of an African country, into space for the first time".
Russian news service Inerfax reports that Shuttleworth has not complied with "certain requirements" for his flight, but "that he still has lots of time to rectify this".
Dale Cupido, Shuttleworth's project leader in Moscow, said the dispute was solved shortly after Monday's media conference. "He will depart on the 25th."
Shuttleworth has confirmed for the first time that his journey cost him $20 million (about R224m), but that the "account" will be settled in instalments.
"We divided the instalments to cover training, preparations, launching and completion of the mission of what we hope proves to be an extremely successful science programme," said Shuttleworth.
He signed an insurance contract for his flight two months ago with Russian insurance giant Magaruss, Interfax reports. Megaruss has been dealing with Western firms for the past 10 years insuring space risk. The contract covers Shuttleworth's training, his flight and visit to the ISS.
Shuttleworth said on Monday he was interested in travelling on the United States space shuttle at a later stage.