The American millionaire video game guru Richard Garriott followed in his astronaut father's footsteps today, blasting off aboard a Russian rocket to become the world's sixth space tourist. Sealed inside the Soyuz TMA-13 capsule together with a Russian cosmonaut and US astronaut, Mr Garriott was catapulted towards the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur base in the dusty steppes of Kazakhstan at 7.01am GMT.
Several hundred observers were present at the launch sight and they applauded as the rocket roared off the launch pad and rose into the blue skies overhead. Within 10 minutes of the launch, controllers confirmed the spacecraft had entered its planned orbit. Family and friends of the crew celebrated the apparently successful start of the mission. "I'm very happy for him," said Mr Garriott's girlfriend, Kelly Miller, tears welling up in her eyes.
"It's one of the things he always wanted to do... I feel like it's well worth the opportunity." The flight, which cost Garriott US$30 million (Dh110m), was programmed to settle into orbit about nine minutes after take-off and reach the ISS at 8.33 GMT on Tuesday. Mr Garriott, who now becomes the first American to follow a parent into space, hopes to be able to recoup the money he paid for the experience.
Unlike the five space tourists who came before him, Mr Garriott views space as a family business. His father is the former US astronaut Owen Garriott, who in 1973 spent two months aboard Skylab, the first orbiting space station. "I grew up in a family of astronauts and I always wanted to do what my father did," the 47-year-old businessman said ahead of his long-awaited departure. Owen Garriott, also present at his son's launch, seemed well pleased with his son.
"It's marvellous," the elder Garriot said after the rocket roared off the launch pad. "Very good." Mr Garriott finally got the chance to fulfill his childhood dream when Space Adventures, the US-based company that specialises in taking wealthy tourists into orbit, announced in September 2007 he would be its next space tourist. "It is a goal I have been working on for 20 to 30 years," Mr Garriott, who underwent a rigorous regime of medical examinations and months of training to be allowed aboard the flight, said in a preflight interview.
"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," said the British-born resident of Texas. Aboard the ISS, he plans to perform several experiments on subjects including the effect of space travel on the immune system and the sleep characteristics of astronauts. "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," he told a press conference yesterday.
"I am generating significant revenues through my activities... that I believe will be increased in the future." During his 10-day trip into space, Mr Garriott is to be accompanied by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and the US astronaut Michael Fincke. At yesterday's press conference, Mr Fincke denied that tensions between Russia and the United States that spiked during the recent conflict in Georgia had in any way harmed relations among the Russian and American space travellers.
"We are a symbol of what people can do working together. And that means all the countries on this planet," said Mr Fincke. "We are doing our best to be the best example that we can be. As we say in space, there is no room for politics." *AFP
