Gregory Hammond "Greg" Olsenis an American entrepreneur, engineer and scientist who, in October 2005, became the third private citizen to make a self-funded trip to the International Space Station with the company Space Adventures... (wikipedia)
One hundred years ago, airline flight was reserved for only a few brave souls. Everyone flies (on planes) nowadays. The same will be true of space flight.
I would do it in a heartbeat. It was one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done in my life; to be weightless is awesome.
I feel welcome, ... With a crew like this, how could you go wrong?
It basically felt like three people pushing up against you.
I will feel most relaxed and most happy when the rocket is taking off. This has been two years of very hard work. In 20 hours, I will feel very, very good.
I would hope that my flight would help, if just to make space flight more routine.
Tourist doesn't do justice to all the work I've put in, or the work that the people at the Gagarin center (outside Moscow) put in preparing us.
Who wouldn't want to go to the moon? I'm really interested, but one flight at a time.
Who wouldn't want to go to the moon?
We did antigravity training in weightless chambers, tested for space suit leaks. We spent nearly six hours a day at a time inside the shuttle, training.
As soon as that rocket launched, I was more relaxed than I've been in two years, ... The only think I was nervous about was, maybe I wasn't going to go.
The Russians recently extended the seat. I just fit in,
I've always slightly objected to the word 'tourist,' ... I think the word 'tourist' doesn't do justice to all the work I've put in.
This is a dream come true. Just to look out and see the Earth from about 230 miles up is just great.
It's a way for the Russian space agency to bring in some well-needed money
the joy of being in space, weightlessness and so on.
I lifted weights, I did crunches, and I ran.
I'm just a guy from New Jersey who got to go into space.
I'm having a great time. I mean, this is a dream come true.
I'll be most relaxed and happy after the rocket takes off,
I just love it up here. It's fulfilling everything I expected.
I do not consider myself a space tourist. Learning how to live and work in space and my upcoming mission are truly a dream come true for me. But I am first and foremost a scientist, and I am going to carry out real science.