Garriott Becomes First US Citizen To Follow Parent Into
Orbit
Accompanied by the popping of champagne corks, cheers -- and
tears -- hundreds of eager spectators watched as three new
spacefarers blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome early Sunday
morning, riding inside their Soyuz TMA-13 capsule towards a Tuesday
rendezvous with the International Space Station.
Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury
Valentinovich Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station
crew lifted off at 0301 EDT Sunday to begin a six-month stay in
space. Accompanying the crew on their ride to orbit was spaceflight
participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the
Russian Federal Space Agency after shelling out close to $30
million to a private company for the privilege.
"I'm very happy for him," Garriott's girlfriend, Kelly Miller,
tearfully told Agence-France Presse. "It's one of the things he
always wanted to do... I feel like it's well worth the
opportunity."
NASA reports the flight went to plan, with the capsule's solar
panels and antennas deployed roughly 10 minutes after blast
off.
As ANN reported, Garriott (shown below
with Fincke and Lonchakov) is the son of astronaut Owen
Garriott, who spent 59 days onboard America's Skylab space station
in 1973. He was also a Mission Specialist onboard the STS-9
mission, the first flight of SpaceLab, onboard the shuttle Columbia
in 1983.
With his flight, the younger Garriott -- who made a fortune in
designing fantasy computer role-playing games, in particular the
"Ultima" series -- became the first US citizen to follow a parent
into orbit.
"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."
And speaking of Richard's father, Owen Garriott witnessed his
son's launch into orbit. "It's marvelous," he said afterward. "Very
good."
Unlike the five 'tourinauts' that preceded him, Garriott fully
intends for his trip to be a money-making enterprise. In addition
to educational activities organized through partnerships with such
entities as the
Challenger Center, Garriott will also perform
experiments dealing with such weighty matters as 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 hours before his launch.
"I am generating significant revenues through my activities ...
that I believe will be increased in the future."
Garriott will return from orbit October 23, riding a Soyuz
TMA-12 capsule with Expedition 17 crewmembers Commander Sergei
Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko. Fincke and Lonchakov
will remain on the station six months, with a significant portion
of their tasks related to preparing the station to handle double
its current crew complement of three spacefarers.
For today, however, all the attention was on Garriott.
"I don't know why, but I cried" said South Korean spacefarer Yi
So-Yeon, who went into space in April and watched Garriott's
liftoff from Kazakstan Sunday. "Now Richard has become a real
cosmonaut."