Aug 21, 2006, 15:16 GMT
Moscow - Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto will not be allowed to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) next month after failing to meet medical requirements, Russian space agency officials in Moscow said Monday.
Enomoto will likely be replaced by Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari for the ten-day flight to the orbiter with a Russian crew, Roskosmos spokesman Igor Panarin said.
Launching with two Russian cosmonauts on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan on September 14, she will pay around 20 million US dollars for the trip and become the first female 'space tourist.'
American Dennis Tito made the first commercial flight to the ISS in 2001, followed by South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and American Gregory Olsen in 2005.
Meanwhile, science fiction fan Enomoto, 35, will not fulfil his dream of orbiting the earth dressed like his cartoon pilot hero 'Char Aznable', a character from the 'Gundam' robot animation series.
The IT millionaire had also planned to build a plastic model of a robot from the series while in space.
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