In a surprise development, the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced Monday that Daisuke “Dice-K” Enomoto, who was to fly to the ISS next month on the Soyuz TMA-9 mission, had been removed from the crew because of an undisclosed medical condition. (See a summary of the announcement and related links.) With Enomoto no longer able to fly, his seat on the mission will likely be taken by Anousheh Ansari, who had been training alongside Enomoto as his backup.
This isn’t the first time that a space tourist has been dropped from a mission because of medical issues—Greg Olsen was removed shortly after starting his training in 2004, but was able to get his medical issues resolved and flew to the ISS last fall; he later disclosed that doctors found a spot on his lung that they feared could be a sign of lung cancer, although the spot disappeared on its own. What is curious is that this medical problem cropped up less than month from is his scheduled flight. Unless Enomoto decides to be as forthcoming as Olsen, though, we may never know what caused Enomoto to miss out on his chance to fly to the ISS.
While I feel bad for Mr Dice K I gotta say I’m pleased to see Ms Ansari going instead. First of all I think she’s hungrier for space and is definately a great spokes-woman for space tourism. Second, it’s another history book record, first female space tourist.