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Space Madness
Cheap Charlie · May 21, 2001

The travel and tourism industry just passed an important milestone in package tour history - over the dead body of NASA's bureaucrats. Like all rarified bureaucracies, NASA is threatened by the change in perception that they are the only people in the country who can deal with the dangers and rigors of space travel.

Guess what? The first tourist managed quite well much to the chagrin of the U.S. space mavens.

During the buildup to the launching of the world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, I was bemused by the United States' grumbling about all the problems that Tito would face in space and the dangers involved.

In October of 1998 NASA sent John Glenn up to space with maximum fanfare to show how safe space has become. The Glenn flight also was designed to show and how "older" citizens can withstand the mythic difficulties and forces, which hitherto, only highly-trained and Olympic-fit astronauts could cope.

Glenn made it with flying colors. Of course everyone knew that only an America hero in tip-top shape for a 77-year-old could do it. That was the myth. Come to think of it, another non-astronaut named Jake Garn, a U.S. Senator, was also taken to space by NASA. (Hmmm, when NASA needs money, they seem more than willing to send up non-astronauts to prime the government money well.)

Enter Tito and the USA immediately began to crank up the myth machine again. He would never make it. The dangers were too great. As reality set in, the USA had to admit that current space travel is not all that strenuous. This is good. Why do we want to continue with an old fantasy instead of dealing with reality? Your guess is as good as mine.

The final U.S. response to the triumphant Russian (check reference) travel and tourism flight was to insist on contractual guarantees that Tito would pay for anything he broke on the flight in the U.S. section of the space station. I don't think he broke anything.

Then the U.S. decided that he was in the way and proved a distraction even though he was sitting about a football field away from the American technicians turning computer knobs and tapping away on the keyboards.

"Hogwash," the Russians said. And hogwash it evidently is.

A space travel tour operator is already selling tickets. I wouldn't be surprised if Amadeus, Sabre and Worldspan have already contacted NASA to set the first electronic ticketing links.

Funny how the world's leading capitalist nation falls back on a "government knows best" ideology and a former gulag-building dictatorship leads the way to a "space for money" business model.

As we in the good old USA are fond to preach, "Capitalism will always win." It did, once again.

This brings me to one of my personal observations. We Americans really aren't good hosts to visitors. I think that deep down we all would rather be left alone and live like hermits on our fenced-in ranch or in our walled-in castle. The a-man's-home-is-his-castle mentality is certainly alive and well here on this continent.

In Europe, where they have real castles, people are genuinely interested in others and enjoy company. They look at it as a joy. In America, where castles are fictitious, we tend to look at company as a burden and only grudgingly lower the drawbridge.

The Tito flight brought this difference into sharp focus.

The USA treated the arrival of the first space tourist as they would that of a trespasser. The Russians, on the other hand, greeted Tito with, "Welcome to our house."

Americans when traveling often say, "Stop on by when you are in my town." But when they get a phone call saying one of their new "friends" will arrive, the response is more like, "I can't believe this guy is really showing up. What a pain."

A similar scenario in Europe finishes with the hosts overjoyed with the prospect of a visit and eager to share their homes and drinks with another.

It is no wonder that we Americans traveling abroad are so uncomfortable with the gracious welcomes we often get. Such hospitality is against our national nature. We don't grow up with hospitality ingrained in our blood.

We seem to exhibit more of the sit-on-the-front-porch-with-your-shotgun way of welcoming visitors. The American family who welcomes friends who "just drop by" are few and far between.

Back to the space station. When it came to saying goodbye, the Americans eagerly hugged their Russian counterparts, but literally pushed away Tito offering only a handshake. I don't know the name of that astronaut who couldn't even manage a gracious goodbye. However, I'll always remember his stiff unfriendliness.

Again, the irony is amazing. Astronauts hug former enemies while snubbing their own citizen whose tax dollars make their life's work possible. Something is amiss in our national psyche.

Well, maybe not amiss - it's just the way we are.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.