Money managers will go anywhere for alpha. Wilshire Associates founder Dennis Tito is proof of that. Late last month the 60-year-old investment pioneer climbed into a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and blasted from Kazakstan into the cosmos, beginning a ten-day trip to the International Space Station, also known as Alpha. The mission: to replace a Russian craft docked at the station, which is jointly operated by 18 countries. Tito's efforts to visit Alpha - including a $20 million payment to the cash-strapped Russian space agency - provoked a meteor storm of controversy. NASA officials asserted that the money manager lacked adequate training and could prove distracting in an emergency. Even so, the U.S. space agency and its partners approved Tito's flight as long as Russia agreed to a list of restrictions - one being that the CEO wouldn't enter the U.S. area of the station unescorted. For Tito, a onetime NASA engineer, the trip was the realization of a lifelong dream. "Dennis is going where no money manager has gone before," quipped colleague Thomas Stevens before the liftoff. Stevens runs the earthbound asset management division of Wilshire, which is best known for its 5,000-stock index and pension consulting practice.