Trip into space taught him not to give up

Dineo Matomela EDUCATION REPORTER

THE world‘s third space tourist, Dr Greg Olsen, 63, says the secret of life is “Don‘t give up” and making the most of the opportunities it presents.

Having taken the journey of a lifetime to the International Space Station in 2005, following Dennis Tito (2001) and Mark Shuttleworth (2002), Olsen is the third self-funded space tourist.

This week he made a brief visit to Port Elizabeth to give a talk on his adventure at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University on Wednesday .

Olsen said the idea of travelling into space had come to him while he was at a coffee shop in the US in June 2003.

He had had a strong desire to travel to space after reading a newspaper article about Shuttleworth, he said.

“I always wanted to go into space, so after reading about Shuttleworth I contacted Space Adventure, the company responsible for organising the trip to space. The rest is history. “I enjoyed floating weightlessly and spending eight days in space.”

Olsen conducted scientific and medical experiments for the European Space Agency during his time in orbit. “I took bacteria samples from working areas, including the kitchen, to show how bacteria grow.”

Olsen admitted that travelling to space did not come cheaply, either financially or physically. His application for space travel had been turned down numerous times.

“I was medically disqualified for nine months due to the problem in my lungs Every time I had to reapply until I was finally accepted.

“If you want to do something in life, don‘t give up. This is the lesson I learnt in space.”

Olsen said he had had to sell his fibre optics company for $20- million (R210-million).

“I trained for six months at a Russian space station, where I learnt about electronics, safety, how to operate a space suit and speaking Russian.”

Olsen was a physics lecturer at the University of Port Elizabeth, now NMMU, in 1971 and ‘72.