Much of what the famous Jules Verne spoke about more than 130 years ago in the novel “Flight to the Moon” has come true in our days. The first manned launch in the 21st century from the Baikonur Cosmodrome opened the era of passenger transportation to space and back. It is probably no coincidence that the first crew of space cabs was headed by Talgat Musabaev, a former civil aviation pilot. And the passenger on his ship was American citizen Dennis Tito. Dennis said that the purpose of his flight was exclusively private: to realize his old childhood dream of going to space. Tito is considered the first space tourist on Earth, because he paid for his voyage on his own. Dennis Tito himself calls himself the first space traveler. So the events described in the novel by Jules Verne can no longer be called fiction. Dennis Tito was born on August 8, 1940 in New York in a poor family of Italian immigrants. While still at school, Dennis became “sick” with space: This happened on the day when he learned about the launch of the first space satellite: “I was a teenager then and watched the development of Soviet-American rivalry in astronautics. I always wanted to fly into space - this kind of life experience was just for me.” Dennis Tito never forgot that his parents moved to the United States in order to achieve prosperity in life. Their son learned a good lesson from this. He realized that if you set a goal in life and work hard to achieve it, you can achieve anything you want. When Dennis was a little older, he moved from New York to California and set out to achieve his dream. In 1962, Tito entered the College of Engineering at New York University. And the next year he was already working as an aerospace engineer for NASA. Dennis Tito was involved in calculating the flight trajectories of interplanetary stations of the Mariner type, and also took an active part in the flights of automatic stations to Mars and Venus. In 1964, the young scientist graduated from the university, receiving a master's degree in engineering technology. In 1970, he continued his studies at UCLA Anderson University. Two years later, Dennis Tito founded his company, Wilshere Associates Inc, which he still runs. NASA has always sought to prevent civilians from boarding its spacecraft. Therefore, formally in his homeland, Tito was deprived of the opportunity to fulfill his dream. Articles increasingly appeared in the American press negatively assessing Dennis Tito’s attempt to go on space travel. “... A person who is ready to risk his life is out of his mind. And since one cannot seriously treat his proposal, it would be better if he remained silent and did not worry the country with such wild nonsense,” American newspapers were full of such statements. They did not analyze the aspects of the planets that formed on Tito’s birthday, and could not see the Sun in conjunction with Mars and in square with Uranus :) But unexpectedly, Russia decided to assist him. When the last formalities were settled, Dennis Tito’s painstaking preparations for the flight began. In total, it lasted approximately 800 hours, including both training and practical work. The training system included such tasks as mastering emergency rescue operations, getting used to the conditions of takeoff and landing in zero gravity, housekeeping, personal hygiene on a spaceship. After some time, Tito could already boast that he could put on a spacesuit in 25 seconds, and passed the required tests with excellent marks. Despite his advanced age, doctors stated that he was in excellent health. Interestingly, the entire crew of this flight became the oldest in the history of flights. Tolgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturina, who accompanied the first tourist in space, were by that time 50 and 51 years old, respectively. “When the engines started working on the launch pad, I, a graduate of the Russian cosmonaut training program, felt quite confident and knew: