World's 1st space tourist took off on this day
The world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, took off in Russian spacecraft Soyuz TM-32 on April 28, 2001. Tito, a former NASA employee, paid a reported $20 million to fund the eight-day space trip. He first made the request to NASA, but the agency declined his plea saying he was not a trained astronaut, after which he turned to Russia.