American Millionaire Hitches a Ride to the Stars for 20 Million Bucks

American millionaire Gregory Olsen´s dream of spaceflight came true as he and an American-Russian crew launched into space on a Soyuz craft, headed for the International Space Station.

Mr. Olsen and an American-Russian crew hurtled toward the International Space Station Saturday on a Soyuz craft in a journey his family said was motivated by a devotion to science.

Relatives and friends of Olsen, astronaut William McArthur and cosmonaut Valery Tokarev gasped as the Russian craft lifted off in a burst of flame from the Baikonur cosmodrome and soared into the bright autumn sky over the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The crew reported that all was well aboard the Soyuz TMA-7 capsule, which will rendezvous Monday with the station floating some 250 miles above Earth.

McArthur and Tokarev are replacing Russian Sergei Krikalev and American John Phillips, who will return to Earth on Oct. 11, along with Olsen, a 60-year-old founder of an infrared-camera maker based in Princeton, N.J. He reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on the Expedition 12 flight.