American space
tourist Richard Garriott is settling into life aboard the International Space
Station and learning firsthand the lessons learned by his astronaut father.
Garriott,
47, is a computer
game pioneer and the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, a two-time
spaceflyer who visited the U.S. space station Skylab and flew aboard the
shuttle Columbia.
It was
while aboard Columbia in 1983 that the elder Garriott used a ham radio to call
Richard from space, and this week the son returned
the favor.
"I'm very
excited, Dad, to be able to ham contact with you," Richard Garriott radioed
down to his father at Russia's Mission Control Center outside Moscow this week.
"I think it's an interesting and historical moment."
Garriott is
the first American
second-generation astronaut, though he's flying alongside the space
station's Expedition 17 commander Sergei Volkov, son of famed Russian cosmonaut
Alexander Volkov. He is paying $30 million for his 10-day spaceflight under a
deal between Russia's Federal Space Agency and the Vienna, Va.-based firm Space
Adventures.
"We're
having a very nice time up here and having a beautiful view of Russia right
now," Garriott told his father.
Garriott is
the sixth paying visitor to the space station. He launched into orbit on
Oct. 12 aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft ferrying two professional
astronauts to the orbiting lab. Joining him on the trip were Expedition 18
commander Michael Fincke, of NASA, and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov.
The
spaceflying trio arrived
at the station on Tuesday, with Garriott due to return to Earth on Oct. 23
with Volkov and Expedition 17 flight engineer Oleg Kononenko who are completing
their own six-month mission. Fincke and Lonchakov are replacing the returning
cosmonauts and joined NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff already aboard.
"It was so
much fun watching him look at Earth for the first time in the Soyuz on our way
up," Fincke said during a televised Thursday interview, adding that Garriott
was quick to learn the fundamentals of eating, drinking and bathing in space. "He's
picked up all the basics really quickly and I think he's really enjoying his
mission so far."
On Friday,
Garriott held a radio webcast with children at Challenger Centers across the
country to answer questions as part of his educational campaign. He has packed
his mission with a host of educational outreach events, science experiments and
Earth observation targets.
Garriott
told students that he did not suffer from motion sickness during his first
taste of weightlessness after reaching orbit, but the lack of gravity did cause
a fluid shift that gave him headaches at first.
"I'm
finally beginning to adjust and I'm only about five days into my 10 days in
space," he said.
Garriott
compared floating in weightlessness to the sensation of scuba diving, only
without the water, and compared the spacious interior of the space station to
the main cabin of a 747 jumbo jet. He is the first space tourist to visit the station
since the addition new rooms and laboratories over the last year.
"Here on
board, we're kind of spread out," Garriott told his father, adding that the
extra room makes for comfortable sleeping arrangements." Everybody kind of
takes a module to themselves. "We have a pretty sizeable room, and of course in
zero gravity it's very, very comfortable as you know."
In addition
to enjoying his spaceflight, Garriott is hard at work with this many science
experiments and enjoying the camaraderie of his fellow astronauts.
"He seems
to be having a great time and we're having a great time hosting him up here,"
Chamitoff said of Garriott. "It's been a lot of fun so far just to have six
people on board and he's very much part of the crew right now."
Richard
Garriott is chronicling his spaceflight training and mission at his personal
Web site: www.richardinspace.com.
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