SINGAPORE, 13 OCTOBER 2008--American millionaire and world famous video game developer Richard Garriott became the world’s sixth space tourist on Sunday (12 October) when he lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:01 a.m. CDT.
He was following in his astronaut father’s footsteps when he blasted off aboard a Russian rocket the Soyuz TMA-13.
According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he flew into space along with U.S. astronaut E. Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.
The space agency said that Fincke, the only American to launch twice on a Soyuz, would serve as commander of the six-month Expedition 18 mission. The mission’s main focus will be preparing the station to house six crew members on long-duration missions.
The Expedition 18 crew is scheduled to arrive at the station Tuesday, with docking to the Zarya module scheduled for 3:33 a.m., said NASA.
Sixth space tourist
AFP reported that Garriott is the sixth space tourist. The agency reported that the flight was costing Garriott 30 million US dollars.
NASA added that Garriott will spend nine days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He will return to Earth on Oct. 23 with Volkov and Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, who have worked aboard the station since April 10.
The agency said that after the hatches were opened, Expedition 17 Commander Sergey Volkov and spaceflight participant Garriott would become the first children of previous space fliers to greet each other in orbit.
Garriott is the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who was a member of the Skylab-3 crew in 1973. Volkov is the son of veteran cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, who flew three Soyuz missions.
