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Local businesswoman waits for boyfriend to return from space
by Kevin Cody
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Local businesswoan Dawn Abraham said she and her boyfriend Dennis Tito will celebrate their second anniversary together when he returns from the International Space Station. Photo by Kevin Cody
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The first time Dawn Abraham met Dennis Tito, two years ago over lunch at Icugeni’s in Santa Monica, he talked to her about space. He didn’t disclose his childhood dream of going into space himself, but he did talk about his work on the flight plan to Mars when he was still an engineer at Jet Propolsion Laboratories.
Abraham, the daughter of long time Manhattan Beach Realtor Nina Michaels, runs Select Personnel. A friend had tried to set her up with Tito. She demurred. Then the friend suggested a business lunch. Abraham’s and Tito’s Santa Monica offices were only a few blocks apart. Abraham could pitch her personnel services for his 350-employee, Wilshire Associates investment firm, the friend suggested.
By the end of lunch Abraham had the contract. Not long afterwords, the two began seriously dating.
The quality about him that intrigued her the most was his determination.
"He’s an ordinary guy in most respects. But when he sets his mind on an idea his focus is so strong it’s inspirational," Abraham said in an interview Tuesday afternoon while her boyfriend circled the earth aboard the International Space Station.
Tito’s single-mindedness help lift him from a lower class childhood in Queens to a self-made businessman with an estimated worth of over $200 million.
Tito disclosed his intention to go into space two Christmas ago. First he tried to build his own rocket to carry him into space. When that didn’t work he approached the Russians. He knew they were having trouble funding the flights they needed to maintain their MIR space station. He offered them $20 million if they would take him along on their next flight. They agreed. Then the MIR station crashed back to earth.
Abraham, somewhat to her relief, thought that would put an end to her boyfriend plan to buy a ticket into space.
In March Tito accompanied two Russian cosmonauts to went to the NASA Space Center in Houston for training. Tito had already spent six months training with the cosmonauts at the Russian Star Space Center, an hour outside of Moscow. Abraham had made four visits to Star to be with him. When she was in California, their twice daily cell phone calls were running costing $10,000/month.
NASA refused to admit Tito to its Space Center, triggering something of an international incident. For several days, the cosmonauts boycotted NASA. Finally, they decided to participate in the training without Tito, and to fill him in on what they learned when the three returned to Star.
Because each nation participating in the ISS project has the right to select its own crew, NASA’s efforts to block Tito’s dream failed. They did extract from him a promise to pay for anything he broke.
Two weeks ago, Abraham flew back to Russia to wait out the final week before the flight. She was the only woman ever allowed to stay with a Russian crew member during the week-long quarantine period. The quarantine is intended to protect the crew from infectious diseases.
Saturday morning, Tikto achieved his childhood dream. As Abraham watched, Tito and two Russian cosmonauhts blasted off aboard the Soyuz rocket from the cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. On Monday, Tito and his fellow cosmonaut caught up and boarded the ISS. They are scheduled to remain there for six days.
Abraham plans to pick up Tito at LAX a week from Saturday, the two-year anniversary of their meeting.
She said their only plans are to relax at his 33,000-square-foot home on nine acres in the Santa Monica mountains, above Pacific Palisades. She said he doesn’t have any special plans — at least none that he’s told her. ER