Dennis Tito Becomes World's First Space Tourist (2001)

American multimillionaire Dennis Tito gained celebrity status in 2001, when he became the first person to pay for his own ticket to space. He spent 7 days, 22 hours, and 4 minutes in space and orbited the Earth 128 times during this period. A former scientist of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tito founded Wilshire Associates, a provider of investment management, consulting, and technology services, in 1972. How much did his ticket aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-32 allegedly cost?