Richard Garriott, the father of UO, has paid about USD 30 million for his 10-day trip to the International Space Station, and become the sixth private astronaut to take a trip on a Russian spacecraft and visit the station.
As reported by the BBC, Garriott is heading for the International Space Station, accompanied by a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. Garriott's father, Owen, an American astronaut, was on hand for the launch. Owen Garriott had spent 60 days on a US space station in 1973.
He plans to carry out experiments during his voyage, including one involving protein crystal growth, on behalf of companies that he says have footed a "meaningful percentage" of the ticket price.
Richard Garriott has also said he would take photos to record how the Earth's surface has changed in the 35 years since his father's voyage.
According to his earlier words, USD 30 million is not a small sum of money for him, "Frankly speaking,it cost most of my property "
About Richard Garriott
"We create worlds." Origin Systems'motto sums up what Richard Garriott has done for over 20 years in the gaming industry. As a teen, he published the role-playing game Akalabeth that lead to the 10-title Ultima series for which he is best known. Launched in 1997, the blockbusterUltima Online(UO) brought the graphical massively multiplayer, online RPGs to the mainstream and proved it could be a lucrative business. Tabula Rasa, Richard Garriott's latest game, is a massively multiplayer online action game that takes you into the heat of battle at the frontlines of an epic war between a xenophobic alien race bent on galactic conquest and the coalition of rebel soldiers who've traveled across the galaxy to stop them.
