[Mr. Silverback]

None of the crew were "tourists". They were trained mission specialists carrying on experiments on board, IIRC there were over 80 separate experiments on this mission.

Yeah, heck, the mission specialist from Israel was a colonel in their Air Force.

[agrace]

MSNBC interviewed his former commander a while ago. This Israeli astronaut was one of the 8 pilots who flew to destroy Saddam's nuclear reactor in the early 80s. So he was already a hero. And his mother was a survivor of Bergen Belsen.