Space Tourist Delayed

By Stephen M. Silverman

08/29/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

Space tourist Dennis Tito isn't zooming off on Saturday, as was earlier expected. On Friday, reports Reuters, NASA turned off the autopilot on the International Space Station and ordered it into free drift. This will allow the space shuttle Endeavor to boost the station's orbit more than two miles. But this does delay, for two days at least, the launch of California financier Tito and two Russian cosmonauts on a "taxi" mission to the station. Tito has paid the Russians $20 million for the trip.