Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Unveils New Exhibit Featuring Greg Olsen’s Soyuz TMA-6 Descent Capsule
Space Adventures, the only company that has provided human space missions to the global marketplace, is pleased to announce that a new exhibit has opened at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City featuring the Soyuz TMA-6 descent capsule that returned to Earth on October 11, 2005 with spaceflight participant Greg Olsen, Ph.D. and the Expedition 11 crew onboard.
Dr. Olsen launched to space on October 1, 2005 with the Expedition 12 crew. While visiting the ISS, he participated in a research program prepared by the European Space Agency and through Amateur Radio on the ISS, Dr. Olsen was able to connect with several dozen high school students via HAM radio signal to discuss his experiences while on orbit. The Soyuz TMA-6 descent capsule is on loan to the museum by Dr. Olsen.
“I hope that the exhibit at the Intrepid will not only spotlight the great engineering at the core of the Russian space program, but also inspire kids to pursue their own dreams and to never give up,” said Greg Olsen.
“While preparing for, during and since Greg’s spaceflight, he has been a true ambassador in sharing his experience with thousands of people, mostly school children. We are truly proud of his dedication in inspiring others to work hard and dream big,” said Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, Ltd. “All of our spaceflight clients have spent a great deal of time sharing their own personal experiences and explaining why it’s important to explore space. We are thankful to each of them.”
Dr. Olsen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He earned dual bachelor degrees in electrical engineering and physics from Fairleigh Dickinson University. After he finished his undergraduate work, he earned his master’s degree in physics at Fairleigh Dickinson and then his doctorate in materials science from the University of Virginia in 1971. From 1972 to 1983, he worked at RCA Laboratories, now known as the Sarnoff Corporation. In 1984, Dr. Olsen started his first company, EPITAXX, Inc. and later sold it for $US12 million. He founded Sensors Unlimited, Inc. in 1992, later sold it for $US700 million. He bought the company back in 2002 for $US6 million and sold it in 2005 for $US60 million. Currently, Dr. Olsen is president of GHO Ventures where he manages his “angel” investments.
Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world’s first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft. The company’s orbital spaceflight clients include Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Greg Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott and Guy Laliberte. Cumulatively, Space Adventures’ clients have spent almost three months in space, traveling over 36 million miles.
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Stacey Tearne
Vice President, Communications
Space Adventures/ZERO-G
+1 703 894 2192 direct
+1 703 524 7176 fax
+1 202 256 7917 mobile
stearne@spaceadventures.com
