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Waiting in the Wings: Expedition 12, Space Tourist Olsen Prepare By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 11 August 2005 06:44 am ET HOUSTON—As the crew of NASA’s space shuttle Discovery celebrates their safe return to Earth, two astronauts are gearing up for their own launch toward the International Space Station (ISS). NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev are set to ride a Soyuz spacecraft to the station in October on the twelfth expedition to the ISS. McArthur will command ISS Expedition 12, with Tokarev serving as flight engineer. Physicist Gregory Olsen, a paying spaceflight participant whose trip...

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's space agency has signed a contract with Gregory Olsen, a spokesman said Wednesday, in a deal that would make the U.S. millionaire scientist only the third tourist to visit the international space station. Vyacheslav Davidenko, a spokesman for the Russian agency, said Olsen could fly to the orbiting station as early as October, when the next Soyuz mission is scheduled to bring supplies and a new crew to the orbiting station. Olsen, a 60-year-old scientist and founder of a New Jersey-based infrared-camera maker, last month resumed training for the flight on a Russian-built Soyuz spaceship at...