Dennis Tito became the first private citizen to travel to the International Space Station in 2001.
Tito was an American engineer and investment manager who paid for his seat through Space Adventures, a company arranging private orbital missions. He launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft on 28 April 2001, alongside Russian cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin.
The mission reached the ISS, where Tito spent nearly eight days before returning aboard Soyuz TM-31 on 6 May 2001. Russia treated him as a spaceflight participant, while NASA initially expressed reservations about allowing a nonprofessional visitor aboard the station.
Tito is sometimes called the first space tourist, although the term “spaceflight participant” was also used officially. His flight preceded later private visitors such as South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth and American businessman Greg Olsen.