NASA is having a fit because the Russians agreed to give Dennis Tito, a California millionaire, a ride to the International Space Station in exchange for a big heap o’ money. NASA says Tito doesn’t have the proper training, won’t be safe, blah blah blah.
NASA is hardly one to whine about frivolous missions as it started the whole process by sending John Glenn back into space (if they had just left him there, that would have been one thing, but they just had to bring him back). If NASA can launch aging Senators in space to drum up support for its budget, I’m not sure what the big deal is about the Russians sending some millionaire into space.
After all, it’s not like they’re actually doing anything useful with the ISS aside from providing an excuse to keep throwing billions of dollars into the black hole that is the Space Shuttle program.