Dennis Tito | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1940-08-08)August 8, 1940 (age 85) Queens, New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | New York University (B.S.) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S.) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Space career | |
| Space tourist | |
Time in space | 7d 22h 04m[1] |
| Selection | 2000[1] |
| Missions | ISS EP-1 (Soyuz TM-32 /Soyuz TM-31) |
Mission insignia |  |
Dennis Anthony Tito (born August 8, 1940) is an Americanengineer andentrepreneur. During mid-2001, he became the firstspace tourist to fund his own visit to space, when he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member ofISS EP-1, a visiting mission to theInternational Space Station. This mission was launched by the spacecraftSoyuz TM-32, and was landed bySoyuz TM-31.
Tito was born in Queens,New York. He graduated fromForest Hills High School in New York City. He holds aBachelor of Science degree inastronautics andaeronautics fromNew York University, 1962 and aMaster of Science degree inengineering science fromRensselaer Polytechnic Institute satellite campus in Hartford, Connecticut.[2] He is a member ofPsi Upsilon and received an honorary doctorate of engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on May 18, 2002 and is a former scientist of theNASAJet Propulsion Laboratory.[3]
Tito was appointed to theLos Angeles Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners during the 1990s and as such he facilitated the 1994 state ruling protectingMono Lake from excessive water diversions by the city.[4]
In 1972, he foundedWilshire Associates, a major provider of investment management, consulting and technology services inSanta Monica, California. Tito serves an international clientele representing assets of $71 billion.[5] Wilshire usesquantitative analytics to analyze market risks – a method Tito is credited with helping to develop by applying the same techniques he used to determine a spacecraft's path at JPL.[3] Despite a career change fromaerospace engineering toinvestment management, Tito remained interested inspace.[6]
In 2020, Tito sold his interest inWilshire Associates.[7]
Dennis divorced from his wife Suzanne Tito during the early 1990s, to whom he had been married since the 1970s.[8][7] They had 2 children together.[9] She had been CFO of Wilshire Associates at the time they relocated into their mansion in Pacific Palisades in 1990 with their children, that they had been building since 1987.[10]
As of 2011 Dennis was married to Elizabeth Pavlova Tito, a Russian investor and Stanford alumna. They lived at Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles.[8]
From 2016 to 2019, Dennis was married toElizabeth TenHouten,[11][9] a businesswoman, poet, author and model.[12][13]
Since 2020, Dennis has been married to Akiko Tito, an engineer, pilot, and investor, who has been interested in spaceflight since childhood.[14][15] She was born in Tokyo, has an economics degree and relocated to New York in 1995, raising a child prior to her marriage to Dennis.[9]
In a project first arranged byMirCorp,[when?] Tito was accepted by theRussian Federal Space Agency as a candidate for acommercial spaceflight. Tito was criticised by NASA before the launch, primarily byDaniel Goldin, at that time theAdministrator of NASA, who considered it inappropriate for a tourist to ride into space.[6][16] MirCorp, Goldin and Tito are profiled in the documentary movieOrphans of Apollo.[needs update] When Tito arrived at theJohnson Space Center for additional training for theAmerican portion of the ISS,Robert D. Cabana, NASA manager, sent Tito and his two fellow cosmonauts home, stating, "...We will not be able to begin training, because we are not willing to train with Dennis Tito".[17]
Later,[when?] by an arrangement with space tourism companySpace Adventures, Ltd.,[18] Tito joined theSoyuz TM-32 mission which launched on April 28, 2001.[19] The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station. Tito and his fellow cosmonauts spent 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space and orbited the Earth 128 times.[18] Tito performed several scientific experiments in orbit that he said would be useful for his company and business.[citation needed]
Since returning from space, he has testified at the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space and the House Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Space & Aeronautics Joint Hearing on "Commercial Human Spaceflight" on July 24, 2003.[20] Ten years after his flight, he gave an interview to BBC News about it.[21]
In February 2013, Tito announced his intention to send a privately financed spaceflight toMars by 2018,[22] stating that the technology exists already and that the problems that need to be solved are only the rigor of a 501-day voyage psychologically and physically for the human crew.[23][24] However, in November 2013, Tito and other Mars Inspiration team members admitted that their plan was impossible without significant assistance and funding from NASA.[25]
On 12 October 2022, SpaceX announced that Dennis and Akiko Tito will be on the crew of the second commercial spaceflight ofStarship around the Moon.[26][needs update]
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