This story was updated at 3:56 a.m. EDT.
American space tourist Richard
Garriott, the son of a former NASA astronaut, rocketed into orbit early Sunday
aboard a Russian spacecraft alongside two professional spaceflyers to become
the first second-generation American astronaut to launch toward the
International Space Station.
Garriott, a 47-year-old computer
video game pioneer, blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 GMT) aboard a Soyuz
TMA-13 spacecraft ferrying new station crewmembers Michael
Fincke and Yury Lonchakov to their orbital home. It was early afternoon at
the launch site.
"Today, my dream of following
in my father's footsteps to explore new frontiers is being realized," Garriott
said of his father, retired NASA scientist-astronaut Owen Garriott, in a
statement released after launch. "It's with honor and appreciation that I
launch on my greatest adventure yet, and step into a role assumed by only five
private individuals before me."
Garriott is paying $30 million for
a 10-day trip to the space station under an agreement between Russia's
Federal Space Agency and the Vienna, Va.-based firm Space Adventures. He is the
sixth paying visitor to the space station.
Owen Garriott, 77, watched his son
launch spaceward, and is serving as chief scientist for his the private spaceflight.
The elder Garriott flew to the American space station Skylab in 1973 and aboard
the shuttle Columbia 10 years later, but has not counseled his spaceflying son
to hold back on his mission.
"He wants to charge full speed
ahead," Owen Garriott told SPACE.com
of his son, who has a packed schedule of science experiments, education events
and Earth observation planned for the flight.
The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft carrying
Garriott, Fincke and Lonchakov is due to arrive at the International Space
Station on Tuesday at 4:32 a.m. EDT (0832 GMT).
They will have to make do without
the space station's master bathroom, a Russian-built
commode that failed for the second time this year last Thursday. Station
astronauts were advised to use the toilets aboard their Soyuz spacecraft until
it can be repaired.
Fincke and Lonchakov are beginning a
six-month mission to the space station as the core of the outpost's new
Expedition 18 crew. Fincke is making his second station flight for NASA and in
command of Expedition 18, with Lonchakov of Russia serving as flight engineer.
Lonchakov is making his third spaceflight and will command the Soyuz trips to
and from the station under the call sign "Titan."
The two astronauts will replace the
station's current core crew, Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov and flight
engineer Oleg Kononenko of Russia, which is due to return to Earth with
Garriott on Oct. 23.
"I feel well prepared for this
flight, and have complete faith in my crew mates, our beautiful rocket, and the
huge number of people it takes to launch our Soyuz and operate the ISS,"
Garriott wrote on his Web site before launch, thanking his friends and family
for their support. "I wish I could share this experience with each of you, in
the way I have had the opportunity to experience it."
By coincidence, Volkov - like
Garriott - is also a second-generation spaceflyer. His father is famed Russian
cosmonaut and veteran space station flyer Alexander Volkov.
A third member of the Expedition 18
crew, NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, is already aboard the space station as an
Expedition 17 flight engineer. He will stay on to join Fincke and Lonchakov
until his own relief arrives in November during the first of two planned NASA
space shuttle missions to deliver new life support, exercise and other
equipment that to prepare the orbiting laboratory for larger,
six-person crews.
One Russian spacewalk and about 98
physical, biological or educational experiments for NASA, Russia, Europe and
Japan are planned for the mission.
Fincke, meanwhile, made a bit of
space history today as the first American astronaut to launch twice aboard a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
"I love the Soyuz and I have
complete faith and trust in our Russian partners," Fincke said in a NASA
interview.
The last two three-segment Soyuz
vehicles to return from the space station experienced module separation
glitches that ended in off-target landings that subjected their crews to higher
stress loads. Russian engineers tracked the problem to the station's space environment
near a specific explosive bolt on the Soyuz.
In addition to Garriott's father,
Space Adventures' next space tourist to fly Charles Simonyi - in training for
his second paid spaceflight in March 2009 - also expected to watch today's
Soyuz launch. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has put a $5 million down
payment for a future Space Adventures flight, was also on hand for the liftoff,
according to wire reports.
"I will return to our earth in a few
weeks, with a vast array of photographs, and a lifetime of new stories,"
Garriott wrote in his farewell. "I look forward to sharing them with you!"
NASA is broadcasting the Expedition
18 crew's flight to the International Space Station live on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's NASA TV feed
and space station mission updates.
Richard Garriott is chronicling his
spaceflight training and mission at his personal Web site: www.richardinspace.com.
advertisement
