Edition: U.S. / Global

Space Tourist, Back From 'Paradise,' Lands on Steppes

Published: May 7, 2001

Shaky on his feet but buoyed by his adventure in space, Dennis A. Tito, the first paying space tourist, plunked down on the rolling steppe of Kazakhstan this morning, bounced and skidded a bit in a Russian Soyuz space capsule and then emerged into the sunlight to get reacquainted with gravity.

''It was great, best, best, best of all,'' Mr. Tito, 60, a financial adviser from Los Angeles, shouted as he and two Russian astronauts were pulled from their capsule. ''It was paradise. I just came back from paradise.''

News reports said the capsule, looking and even smelling charbroiled after its re-entry, took a scuffing as its parachute dragged it 50 feet at the touchdown point near Arkalyk, 250 miles southwest of the Kazakh capital, Astana.

Russian recovery teams flew a dozen planes and helicopters to chase the space capsule during its descent. Just before impact, it fired a final set of rockets to soften the blow. Ground teams then converged in all-terrain vehicles.

''It was a great flight, great landing, a soft landing,'' Mr. Tito said, grinning and waving as he momentarily tried to stand and then sank willingly into a chair that bore him to a nearby mobile hospital for a checkup. His more seasoned space companions, Talgat Musabayev, the flight commander, and Yuri Baturin, the flight engineer, walked.

Apples were handed to the crew, and Mr. Tito, after fumbling his as he tried to juggle, said, ''You see, I'm still used to weightlessness.''

Afterward, all three flew by helicopter to Astana. There, Mr. Tito and his colleagues were greeted by Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who hugged each of the space travelers and remarked: ''I offer an especially warm welcome to Mr. Tito. Until recently, you would only read in science fiction that an ordinary man could go to space. You have paved the way for space tourism.''

Mr. Tito, all smiles though still wobbly, replied, ''My personal experience was well beyond my dreams.'' He said he had worried ''that I might not feel well in space, but I turned out to feel the best I felt in my entire life.''

The Russian crew and Mr. Tito flew back to Moscow this afternoon.

The end of Mr. Tito's eight-day adventure, which took him to the International Space Station, did not end the public dispute between the Russian and American space agencies over space tourism. Though the two agencies reached a last-minute agreement on the terms for Mr. Tito's ride, recriminations have followed.

The NASA administrator, Daniel S. Goldin, has promised to present the Russian space agency with a bill for the hours of work required by extra precautions and the ''incredible stress'' placed on NASA employees as they tried to ensure that Mr. Tito would not break anything or otherwise endanger the space station.

The chief designer of the Russian portion of the space station, Yuri Semyonov, also chief of the Russian rocket builder Energiya, said today that he was ''satisfied with the flight, despite the fact that preparations were so emotional.''

He complained that Mr. Goldin's objections to Mr. Tito's flight and NASA's attempt to bar him from the American section of the space station amounted to erecting an ''iron curtain'' in space.

In the end, Mr. Tito appears to have been a helpful and well-behaved guest. His crew mates praised his performance and the permanent space station crew welcomed Mr. Tito into the American module and seemed to ignore much of the earthbound fuss over Mr. Tito, who had worked as a NASA engineer.

While aboard the helicopter that took him to the Kazakh capital, Mr. Tito said he hoped that other tourists would have the opportunity to visit space. ''It's an experience that cannot be described,'' he said, ''It is being in a different world, being in a different life.'' He said he ''loved living outside gravity,'' and added, ''I slept better than I have for years.''

The Russian mission that Mr. Tito joined delivered a new ''lifeboat'' Soyuz capsule to the space station and flew back in one that had been docked to the space platform since November. While Mr. Tito took videos, listened to music and helped out with some light duties, Mr. Musabayev conducted experiments on fruit flies and their adaptation to weightlessness. Mr. Baturin carried out a series of experiments on how zero gravity affects the formation of crystalline structures in charged solid particles in plasma.

Mr. Musabayev, an ethnic Kazakh, had nothing but praise for the Californian, who paid a reported $20 million for the ride. ''Tito is a very strong man and a very proud man,'' he said.

Photos: Russian officers ran to the Soyuz capsule after it landed yesterday near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, 250 miles southwest of the Kazakh capital, Astana. (Associated Press); Dennis A. Tito, the California financial adviser who became the first space tourist, emerged from the Soyuz. (Agence France-Presse)