Dennis Tito

Dennis Tito is an American engineer and investment manager who became the first paying space tourist, spending about eight days aboard the International Space Station in April 2001 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, an arrangement brokered by the company Space Adventures. His flight was initially opposed by NASA, which was concerned about a private citizen visiting the station, but the mission proceeded after negotiation with the Russian space agency, opening the door to a series of later paying spaceflight participants.