An American
space tourist bound for the International Space Station (ISS) has begun
training for his fall launch aboard a Russian rocket.
Computer
game developer Richard Garriott is
spending six weeks in Russia
to undergo initial medical checks and the first round of training for flight
aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.
"This year
is definitely where all my priorities and schedules have rotated to where space
becomes the top priority and terrestrial activities become secondary," Garriott told SPACE.com. "There's no aspect of the
actual training that I perceive that's going to be scary or intimidating, I
just look at it as going to be really smooth from here."
Garriott,
46, is paying about $30 million to launch to the ISS with two professional
spaceflyers this fall under an agreement between Russia's Federal Space Agency and
the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. He is the creator of the Ultima
series of online computer games and is contemplating $15 million spacewalk as
an additional mission perk.
The son
of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew
aboard the U.S. Skylab station and a U.S.
shuttle, the younger Garriott is set to become the
first second-generation U.S.
spaceflyer and the sixth paying visitor to the ISS
during his mission.
"We have
been having about five e-mails from each other a day," Garriott
said of his father, who will serve as chief scientist for his upcoming flight.
"My dad will even tell you this is the hardest he's worked since he left the
space program."
Garriott
plans to spend about nine days aboard the space station, during which time he
will perform protein crystallization and Earth observation experiments, some of
which include photographing sites his father observed from Skylab
in 1973.
But before
launching, Garriott must educate himself in the
workings of Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS, not to mention the Russian
language.
"I've never
learned a second language before," he said. "You just want to be able to
participate fully and competently and enjoyably, and I'm gaining confidence
that I can do that."
On Sunday, Garriott expected to meet with ISS Expedition 18 commander
Michael Fincke, with whom he'll launch to the station
later this year, as well as South Korean astronaut Ko
San. Ko,
South Korea's
first astronaut, will launch toward the space station
on April 8 with the outpost's Expedition 17 crew.
Garriott said he also hoped to meet with Russian
cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, commander of Expedition
17. Like Garriott, Volkov is a second-generation spaceflyer who, if all goes
according to plan, will return to Earth with the U.S. space tourist later this fall.
"I'm really
going to work hard to get a chance to meet him before he flies," Garriott said.
Richard Garriott is chronicling his spaceflight training and
mission at his personal Web site: www.richardinspace.com.
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