WASHINGTON A third candidate has emerged for the extra seat on a November Soyuz mission to the international space station, and the name may come as a surprise. While well known in space policy circles, shes neither extremely wealthy nor famous.
Lori B. Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for policy and plans who now consults for DFI International here, recently returned from Moscow where she underwent a medical certification required of all cosmonauts and would-be space tourists.
Barry Blechman, DFIs president, told Space News that the company has been sponsoring Garvers attempts to secure a seat on the upcoming flight of the Russian-built Soyuz capsule.
This would be wonderful for DFI if this works, Blechman said. And she wont have to go on leave to do it.
Blechman said that DFI has no plans to underwrite the entire cost of a Soyuz mission and that Garver and her colleagues are attempting to cobble together a variety of corporate and private funding deals.
Garver is one of at least three serious candidates vying for the empty third seat on a mission to deliver a fresh Soyuz capsule to the international space station this fall.The other two candidates are Lance Bass, 23, a member of the pop band NSYNC, and Leszek Czarnecki, 39, a business executive from Poland.
Unlike either Bass or Czarnecki, Garver would not be paying for the trip herself.
Rather, Garvers trip would be paid for through a combination of corporate sponsorships and foundation funding. The purpose of the trip, according to Blechman, would be to show that ordinary people can go to space.
But while Garver might not be able to afford the $20 million or so that U.S. businessman Dennis Tito paid for his historic tourist flight to the space station last spring, she is hardly just another working mom from the Washington suburbs.
Garver came to Washington in the 1980s to help then-U.S. Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) the first American to orbit the Earth in his short-lived bid for the U.S. presidency. Garver then went to work for the National Space Society, emerging as the advocacy groups leader just three years later.
She joined NASA in 1996 to work in the agencys policy and plans shop, where she earned a reputation as a close confidante and staunch defender of NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.
Garver is pursuing a flight deal through Amsterdam-based MirCorp, the companys president, Jeffrey Manber, confirmed in a telephone interview.
Were working with Ms. Garver and we are delighted, Manber said. Shes backed by DFI and I think shell attract other sponsors. Its a very nice story and Im personally delighted that shes living out the dream.
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