October 16, 2008 — He’s helped countless others live out their fantasies in his Ultima video game series. But now Richard Garriott is living out his own fantasy by becoming the first second-generation American in space.
Garriott, Expedition 18 Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov arrived at the International Space Station Tuesday in a Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft.
A couple of minutes after lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday, Garriott could be seen on camera holding a message for fans of Tabula Rasa. It is written in the fictional language of "logos," which figures prominently in the video game's storyline.
Garriott is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who spent 59 days onboard America's Skylab space station in 1973. Owen watched his son’s launch into orbit. “It’s marvelous,” he said afterward. “Very good.”
"It is a goal I have been working on for 20 to 30 years," said Garriott, 47, in the days prior to his launch. "At the age of 47, I still consider myself a fairly young man, and I believe I will continue to build new businesses which will allow me to continue my exploration of the world...I grew up in a family of astronauts and I always wanted to do what my father did."
Unlike the five space tourists who preceded him, Garriott is making his trip a moneymaking one. In addition to educational activities organized through partnerships with groups such as the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, Garriott is performing experiments dealing with the effects of zero-g on the immune system, and astronauts' rest cycles.
"I am trying to demonstrate with my flight ... that private participants can do business in space that returns revenues at similar scales to the cost," Garriott said. "I am generating significant revenues through my activities ... that I believe will be increased in the future."
Garriott, who paid nearly $30 million to the Russian Federal Space Agency and Space Adventures for the chance to travel to the ISS, is also blogging about his adventures here.
Garriott will return to Earth on Oct. 23 with Expedition 17 crewmembers, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko. Expedition 17 launched to the station on April 8.
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Shortly after lifting off, space tourist Richard Garriott holds up a message for fans of his video game Tabula Rasa.
Photo: www.richardinspace.com
A clearer look at Richard Garriott’s message from space.
Can you decipher it? Photo: www.richardinspace.com
The ISS crew poses for a picture after Expedition 18 arrives at the orbiting space station. Photo: www.richardinsapce.com
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