Space Tourist Richard Garriott has returned safely from space and the International Space Station (ISS) after a 10 day visit. Gariott is the 6th official space tourist of record.
Richard Gariott is the first 2nd generation astronaut as he is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Gariott. On October 12, 2008 Richard Gariott launched aboard a Soyuz TMA-12 from Kazakhstan and returned on October 13, 2008 along with cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko who had spent six months aboard the ISS.
Gariott is a Silicon Valley multimillionaire who made his money designing fantasy-style computer games. One criticism that Gariott had of the program is that he says NASA needs to be more open to the space tourism industry and encourage visitors in space.
According to Richard Gariott, “This mission to the ISS fulfilled a lifelong dream to experience spaceflight as my father first did 35 years ago. It’s an honor to be the first American to follow a parent into space. This experience made possible by Space Adventures – from my training in Star City, to lift-off, orbit and finally docking with and staying on the ISS – has been more gratifying than anything I could have ever imagined.”
While in space, Gariott did participate in NASA sponsored teleconferencing with HAM radio links, talking to students about his experience and experiments while onboard the ISS.
