September 23, 2008

Next Space Tourist Will Be Former US Astronauts’ Son

Richard Garriott, a multi-millionaire computer game designer, will become the first child of a U.S. astronaut to travel to space when he takes his $30 million seat aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule set to lift off Oct. 12 for the International Space Station.

His father, Owen Garriott, was a two-time space traveler who took extensive photographs of the Earth's surface during his stay on the U.S. orbital station Skylab in 1973.

The younger Garriott plans to take photos using data from the Skylab photo archive to record how the Earth's surface has changed in the 35 years since.



Garriott, an Austin, Texas resident, has spent a year in grueling preparations for the 10-day trip halfway around the world in Star City, outside Moscow.

Garriott said every youngster dreams of going to space,.


He was told as an adolescent that poor eyesight meant he would never be selected as a NASA astronaut - "which was like being told I was no longer going to be able to be a member of the club that everyone I knew was a part of."


Garriott bought his first computer a few years later when his father matched the money he raised as a computer-store sales clerk. And as his career creating computer games took off, he began investing in the development of private space flight.


During his voyage, Garriott plans to carry out experiments, including one involving protein crystal growth, on behalf of companies that have footed a "meaningful percentage" of the bill.

Garriott's father will come to Russia to monitor his son's mission. He has helped prepare Garriott's experiments - and given the younger man some less scientific advice.



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