MOSCOW, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) has signed a contract with the third space tourist, Gregory Olsen, for a voyage in Russia's spacecraft Soyuz to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for October, the space agency said here Wednesday.

    "A contract between Olsen and Roskosmos has been signed lately, and the American tourist has been approved as a member of the ninth visiting mission to the ISS," Vyacheslav Davidenko, spokesman for Roskosmos, told the Itar-Tass news agency.

American space tourist Gregory Olsen steps out of the Soyuz-TMA replica spacecraft in Star City near Moscow July 6. (Reuters)

    Olsen, 60, founder of the US company Sensors Unlimited, said he dislikes being called a space tourist, the report said.

    Olsen said he would pursue an extensive experimental research program on board the ISS and it would be right to call him a "private researcher."

    The millionaire said he was planning experiments to grow crystals in weightlessness.

    According to the spokesman, Olsen has received training for the space mission in the Star City outside Moscow last year, and the course resumed on May 16, 2005.

    The remaining part of training for Olsen includes the study of life support systems, emergency skills and medical aspects, the report said.

    Russia has successfully sent American Dennis Tito and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth to the ISS in 2001 and 2002. Each of them paid about 20 million US dollars for the space voyage. Enditem