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Tito, Crew Leave International Space Station

Aired May 05, 2001 - 19:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone, I'm Stephen Frazier at CNN center in Atlanta. We'll go back to "CAPITAL GANG" in just a minute, but first we'd like to show you some pictures from about 200 kilometers up, where space tourist Dennis Tito and the two cosmonauts accompanying him on Soyuz are just -- have just departed the international space station Alpha after this final group photo here and comments from everyone gathered. You can see Tito there on the far left, astronauts Susan Helms on the far right, the others there are the two within Soyuz who are Yuri Baturin and -- let's see, let's see -- we also have Jim Voss up in the upper right.

Telling people that he has achieved his dream and had an excellent mission, they thanked the crew of the international space station for its hospitality; thanked all who made this happen.

Tito, you remember, the American financier who paid $20 million, we believe, to the Russian space program for this chance to go aboard the international space station and be the first space tourist to view earth from about 200 kilometers up.

Now, they've gone through a hatch just to the rear of that picture and have closed that and are preparing to undock from the international space station and begin the trip back to the steppes of central Kazakhstan, the Baikonur Cosmodrome where this flight originated and where it will end -- ending this excellent vacation of Dennis Tito.

I'm Stephen Frazier at CNN center in Atlanta, back to "CAPITAL GANG" after this break.

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