Man-In-Space Firsts:
Space For The Rest Of Us
TABLE OF CONTENTS
First civilian astronauts: Engineers Neil A. Armstrong and Elliot See were selected in 1962 in NASA's second group of astronauts. See was killed in an airplane crash in 1966. Armstrong flew in Gemini 8 in 1966 and in Apollo 11 in 1969 to become the first man on the Moon.

First passenger ticket: Charles Walker, launched in shuttle Discovery in August 1984, was the first American private industry agent in space. McDonnell Douglas purchased his ticket so he could do drug research.

Second paying passenger: Tokyo Broadcasting System paid $10 million to the USSR to have Toyohiro Akiyama spend a week at the Mir space station in December 1990 as a "cosmoreporter." The newly-capitalistic Soviets charged TBS extra for spacesuits and other necessities, asking $10,000 an hour for cosmonauts in Mir to point a camera at Akiyama.

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