Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

Space used to be the exclusive domain of professional astronauts, but in the past decade, the opportunity for space travel has been extended to any interested individuals who can afford the $20 million ticket. Businessman and scientist Dennis Tito became the first so-called “space tourist” when he boarded the Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft today (April 28th) in 2001.

Tito was an excellent candidate to participate in a spaceflight, having earned a Bachelor of Science in astronautics and aeronautics and a Master of Science in engineering science in addition to being awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering. He had worked as a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory before pursuing an extremely lucrative career in investment management.

Thanks to that investment management career, Tito had the funds to arrange to travel into space through a program instituted by the Russian Federal Space Agency. Russia was in need of funding to offset the considerable maintenance costs of the Mir space station and had decided to offer the opportunity to visit Mir to qualified individuals who were also able to afford the trip’s hefty price tag.

Tito’s trip hit a snag when Mir was retired, but he was able to change his itinerary to visit the recently launched International Space Station instead. This change of plans raised objections from NASA, who felt Tito’s presence on the space station would be detrimental to the astronauts, who would have to take time away from their research to escort Tito through certain parts of the space station and explain various aspects of the station’s equipment.

In spite of NASA’s opposition, Tito received basic training for his journey and spent 7 days, 22 hours, and four minutes in space. During this time, he performed several experiments that would benefit his business.

Tito has since been followed by six other individuals, all of whom have used their time in space to perform various scientific experiments. This has led to a certain amount of disagreement as to whether “space tourist” is an appropriate label. Officially, they are referred to as “spaceflight participants.”

Currently, space tourism flights are only offered through the Russian Federal Space Agency. The program is currently on hiatus but is set to relaunch in 2013, at which time Russia will be sending spacecraft to the International Space Station on a more frequent basis, thus providing more opportunities to take along additional passengers.

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– Teresa Santoski