S. African Space Tourist Mourns Columbia Astronauts

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, February 03, 2003

S. African Space Tourist Mourns Columbia Astronauts

The world's second spacetourist, South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, extended his condolences to the families of the seven astronauts killed Saturday aboard the shuttle Columbia.

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The world's second spacetourist, South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, extended his condolences to the families of the seven astronauts killed Saturday aboard the shuttle Columbia.

"My only thoughts would be with the families of the crew,"Shuttleworth, who paid 20 million US dollars to travel to the International Space Station on a Russian spacecraft last year, was quoted by local media as saying Sunday.

Shuttleworth, an Internet millionaire from Cape Town, said whenever an accident happens, it's devastating for everybody involved, and there will be a lot of soul-searching in the community to find out if there is anything anybody could have done to prevent this.

The launch and the landing are the two moments more likely fora space mission "to get into trouble," he said, describing his ownreentry experience with the Russian spacecraft Soyuz as a "very violent" one.

Columbia disintegrated 16 minutes before landing in Florida,the United States, after a 16-day mission to carry out more than 80 experiments.

California businessman Dennis Tito was the first space tourist to make a weeklong trip to the station in 2001.

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