Read a text abridged from the article by Peter Sheridan. While reading decide what kind of travelling the text is about.

When Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist, he also made his partner the first woman to experience the emotions of the future… and they are deep and different. Now, she doesn’t know what kind of man is coming down.

From the balcony of her million-dollar, ocean-front apartment in Los Angeles, Dawn Abraham looks out across the vast blackness of the Pacific and gazes up at the starry night sky. Slowly, a tear rolls down her cheek. She has lost count of how many times she has wept this week.

‘He’s up there, somewhere,’ says the girlfriend of the world’s first paying space tourist, Californian millionaire Dennis Tito. While other women may fret about their men going off to football matches or fishing weekends, Dawn is a pioneer of the conflicting emotions of the future: man in space, woman on Earth. This is surely how it will be in centuries to come. And those emotions are as deep – and dark – as space itself.

‘I just wish I had him safe in my arms now, back here on Earth,’ she sighs heavily. ‘This past week he’s been in space, and the past year he’s been training, it’s been so emotional. Dennis is risking his life pursuing a dream, and is driven by the adrenaline of the excitement and activity. But I have all the time in the world to wait and worry if I’ll ever see him again. I sometimes wonder if this is harder on him, or me.’

Today, she will wait again, heart in mouth, for word that Tito has safely undocked from the £67 billion International Space Station that has been his home for the past six days, and that his ageing Russian Soyuz capsule – to be retired to a museum after the flight – has landed on Russian soil.

The strain of the separations caused by Tito’s months of training may prove difficult to overcome. ‘The emotional toll of worrying about Dennis all the time became overwhelming. I tried to detach myself from him emotionally, so that I could get on with my life and not feel I was waiting for him all the time.’ Tito’s plan to be the first civilian in space first came up at Christmas in 1999. ‘Our families were gathered together when Dennis started talking about building his own rocket and flying into space. Dennis became interested in experiencing weightlessness in a zero gravity plane flight in Russia. While he was over there, somebody told him, “The Russian economy’s not too good: if you pay enough, they may let you go up in the Mir space station.” ‘Dennis is very safety-minded, and will only take risks when he knows they’ll pan out. But his heart is in space exploration.’

‘Dennis made enquiries and became passionate about the idea. He signed a contract to go up in Mir, and I knew he was serious when he began training last August in Star City – Russia’s cosmonaut base about 50 miles outside Moscow. I didn’t really like the idea of him going to Mir and, frankly, neither did Dennis after all its problems. The Russians invited Dennis to go up and help fix it, but he said, “I’m not paying $20 million to be a repairman.” Yet it appeared to be his only hope of space travel.’

Last November, it seemed Tito’s dream would never be fulfilled. Mir had already come crashing down to earth and a prospect of a visitor being welcomed on the ISS, a joint venture with the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan, looked increasingly slim. The United States had put up the strongest resistance to Tito joining the station, in spite of the fact that he’d actually worked for NASA as an aerospace engineer in the Sixties. The Americans said his inexperience might jeopardize the safety of other crew members. However, the Russians stood firm.

‘At the end of January, Russia said he could go up in the ISS, and Dennis returned to training,’ says Dawn. ‘Some have criticized him for spending so much on a week’s space flight, but $20 million (£14 million) to Dennis is like spending $2,000 (£1,400) to most people. I don’t think about the things he could have bought with it.’

Tito’s space flight training took him to Russia for months, with Dawn surviving between visits every six weeks. ‘Our separations have been really hard,’ she confesses. ‘I could call Dennis every morning and every night, and at first that was good. But after a while it got very lonely. I was also worried he might die pursuing his dream. For a long time all I could think about was Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died when the Shuttle Challenger exploded after blast-off in 1986.’

Launch day finally arrived a week last Saturday with Dawn and Tito facing their apprehension in different ways. ‘Dennis was very pensive and subdued before the launch,’ she recalls. ‘He fitted into his space suit, and when the time came to go he waved and said, “I love you.” He reached out his gloved hand and touched me. It was a very moving moment.’

Taking a CD player and opera collection as an in-flight entertainment, Tito and his fellow cosmonauts left the pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3.37am local time. Dawn looked on nervously, ‘I thought I was going to throw up and miss the launch, I was so frightened,’ she recalls. ‘With my boyfriend sitting on tons of explosive fuel, ready to blast into space, it was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. First I heard the noise, then everything started shaking, and I watched this fireball lift into the sky. All I could say was, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!” People were clapping and cheering, but I was devastated, crying.’

Tito may have finally achieved his ambition but Dawn was unable to enjoy the moment for long. ‘I was so worried he may have passed out, or had a heart attack. I know he’s fit: he jogs four days a week, and works out every other day, but you never know. He is 60. I was in total shock. I couldn’t speak for hours. I felt very vulnerable.’

Tito confessed in an early transmission from the orbiting Space Station: ‘This experience will be unsurpassed by any experience, and I think it will be part of what makes me who I am.’ When I remind Dawn of these words she pauses, and stares skyward once more. ‘I find myself looking up at the night sky and wondering if he’s passing overhead. I think he’s crazy to go to space, but then I look at what Tito has achieved by showing the world that space travel should be open to anyone, and that’s admirable.

9. Answer the questions to the text:

1. Why is Dawn Abraham overcome with mixed emotions when thinking about Dennis Tito’s space flight?

2. What motives was Dennis activated by when he became passionate with the idea?

3. How many days did Dennis spend in space?

4. Why was it difficult for Dawn to detach herself emotionally from him in order to overcome the strain?

5. Where did Dennis begin training?

6. How much did he pay to the Russians for the flight? Was it a huge sum for him?

7. Was Dennis in high spirits when launch day came?

8. What things did he take with him?

9. Why couldn’t Dawn enjoy the moment of launch?

10. What did Tito say about his new experience?

11. What is the most admirable achievement in Tito’s space travel?

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