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NASA approves Tito's flight to ISS
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US National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dropped its opposition to US businessman Dennis Tito's flight to the International Space Station, Time magazine's website reported last Friday.
Washington had opposed the flight, arguing Tito, a 60-year-old former space engineer, would not be able to handle the kinds of emergencies that could crop up on such a mission.
But late last Thursday, NASA finally gave the green light to the flight, leaving Tito free to become the world's first space tourist.
In return, he had to sign an agreement that NASA would not be held liable for anything that goes wrong during the mission.
"It also requires that he pay for anything he breaks," an unnamed source close to Tito told the newsweekly.
Tito is due to blast off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on April 28, along with Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.
The tycoon -- who reportedly paid some 20 million dollars for the trip -- flew to Baikonur on Monday to try on his spacesuit.(SD-Agencies)
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