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Space Tourist's Health Might Be an Issue ; Ex-Ridgefield Park Man Awaits Russian Flight

Posted on: Thursday, 24 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

A spokesman for a Virginia company arranging aspiring U.S. space tourist Gregory Olsen's ride on a Russian spacecraft denied reports Wednesday that the trip was off because of Olsen's health problems.

Earlier in Moscow, the Interfax news agency cited an official at Russia's cosmonaut training center as saying that Olsen, who has been at the center since April, was rejected for health reasons. Olsen, formerly of Ridgefield Park, is the founder of Sensors Unlimited Inc. of Princeton.

Robert Volmer, spokesman for Space Adventures of Arlington, Va., said there is "no certainty" that any "potential condition" will bar Olsen from his orbital mission to the international space station.

Marshall J. Cohen, president and co-founder of Sensors Unlimited, said he exchanged e-mails Wednesday with Olsen regarding details of experiments Olsen planned to do aboard the space station, and Olsen mentioned no problems.

"Greg had just bragged to us about how well he did in the centrifuge testing," Cohen said, adding that the public relations official for Space Adventures told him Russian space officials were to hold a hearing on Olsen's situation shortly and make a final decision sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Olsen, who had passed an initial physical examination, hopes to blast off next spring aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule for the space station in a $20 million trip organized through Space Adventures.

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