Posted on 10/14/2008 7:30:48 PM PDT by jmcenanly
Vienna, Va. - October 14, 2008 - Space Adventures, Ltd., the only company that provides human space missions to the world marketplace, announced today that its orbital client Richard Garriott and his crew successfully arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after launching onboard the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 12. The spacecraft docked to the ISS at 4:38 a.m. (EDT) with Garriott and Expedition 18 crew members NASA astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. They were greeted at 6:00 a.m. (EDT) by the Expedition 17 crew, which includes Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, when the hatch to the space station opened. In preparation for his spaceflight, Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, completed a training program at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in Star City, Russia. This historic mission marks Garriott as the world's 1st second-generation astronaut and the first time a Space Adventures' mission will incorporate commercial activity aboard the ISS, to include educational outreach, scientific and environmental research. Garriott will share his experiences through his Web site, www.richardinspace.com. The site's "Tracking The Mission" section will feature live and playback video from NASA TV and Garriott will also be responding to questions posed on his site via audio recordings, direct from space. Garriott will complete more than 170 orbits of the Earth before returning home with Expedition 17 crew members Volkov and Kononenko on October 24.
(Excerpt) Read more at comspacewatch.com ...
cool stuff but... do the proceeds go to Russia?
This guy is pretty interesting.
He started writing video games in high school and did quite well at it, becoming quite wealthy at it. In fact I was, and still am a big fan of his games. (Ultima series).
Also, being a fan of the space program, I didn’t realize until many years later, that he was also the son of Owen Garriott, Nasa Astronaut who spent time aboard Skylab.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_garriot
“Private Astronaut” is a great way to pick up chicks.
And the first to follow his father into space as well.
I had the pleasure of working for his company in Austin for just short of 5 years. He's an interesting character and I'm not surprised at all that he's doing this. I'm actually surprised it took him this long ... I figured he'd be first in line once Russia opened up a seat for funds.
You can follow the mission here.
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