|
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan: American millionaire video game guru Richard
Garriott followed in his astronaut father’s footsteps Sunday,
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, Garriott was catapulted
towards the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur base
in the dusty steppes of Kazakhstan at 0701 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. Champagne
corks popped as family and friends of the crew celebrated the
apparently successful start of the mission.
“I’m very happy for him,” said
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 $30 million (22
million euros), was programmed to settle into orbit about nine
minutes after take-off and reach the ISS at 0833 GMT on Tuesday.
Garriott 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, Garriott views space as a family business.
His father is 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 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.”
Garriott finally got the chance to fulfill his
childhood dream when Space Adventures, the US-based company that
specializes 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,” Garriott, who underwent a rigorous regime of medical
examinations and months of training to be allowed aboard the flight,
said in a pre-flight 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 on Saturday.
-- AFP
|
