Millionaire Blasts Off To Space

U.S. millionaire scientist Gregory Olsen and an American-Russian crew hurtled toward the international space station Saturday on a Soyuz craft in a journey his family said was motivated by a devotion to science.

Relatives and friends of Olsen, astronaut William McArthur and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev gasped as the Russian craft lifted off in a burst of flame from the Baikonur cosmodrome and soared into the bright autumn sky over the steppes of Kazakhstan.

As the announcement came that the spacecraft had entered its initial designated orbit nine minutes after the launch, the crowd burst into applause.

The crew reported that all was well aboard the Soyuz TMA-7 capsule, which will rendezvous on Monday with the station floating some 250 miles above the Earth.

"Life is good," said Cynthia McArthur, whose husband is a three-time veteran of U.S. space shuttle flights.

However, Russian space officials injected a sour note, warning that they could not guarantee McArthur's return next spring at the end of his and Tokarev's six-month mission unless NASA pays for the flight.

Since the 2003 Columbia disaster grounded the U.S. shuttle fleet, the United States has depended on Russian Soyuz and Progress craft to ferry its astronauts and supplies to the orbiting space station. Discovery visited the station in July, but problems with the foam insulation on its external fuel tank cast doubt on when the shuttle will fly again.

U.S. law currently bars NASA from making such payments to Russia.

The Soyuz make twice-yearly missions to the station to deliver new crews and bring back astronauts.

McArthur and Tokarev are replacing Russian Sergei Krikalev and American John Phillips, who will return to Earth on Oct. 11, along with Olsen.

CBS News correspondent Beth Knobel reports that Olsen is a 60 year-old scientist who made a fortune building high-tech sensors and cameras -- some of which he'll use in his experiments on board.

He reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on the Expedition 12 flight.

Knobel reports that most of the $20 million is going to the chronically underfunded Russian Space Agency, for which tourism is a very earthly way to earn extra cash.

Olsen's daughter, Krista Dibsie, 31, videotaped the launch. "There goes Dad," she said quietly, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Love ya, Dad."

"Now I'm nervous for him," she said. "I wasn't before but now he's up there and, gosh, he's out of this world. I know that's a corny thing to say, but I can't believe it."

Her father, who holds advanced degrees in physics and materials science, has defended his presence in the capsule as a necessary step in the evolution of space travel.

"I would hope that my flight would help, if just to make space flight more routine," Olsen said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on the eve of the flight.