Air & Space Magazine’s Irene Klotz talks with space tourist Richard Garriott, a computer game developer scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in October. A second generation space traveler, his father Owen flew aboard Skylab and the Space Shuttle.
“While computer games have been my vocation, my personal and private investing and side hobby has been in exploration and adventure travel, with a focus on getting civilians into space. Space Adventures, which made history by sending the first civilian into space, is a company that I was the earliest investor in, and still the largest investor, and I’m thrilled that now we’re finally able to allow me to take that journey.”
Sam Dinkin also has a new interview with Garriott over at The Space Review. Garriott talks about the challenges of learning Russian, the similarities between spaceflight and the video games he designs, and explains the experiments he will be conducting on ISS.
American space tourist Richard Garriott and his Australian backup Nik Halik have begun physical and language training at Star City outside Moscow for Garriott’s planned October flight to the International Space Station, according to ITAR-TASS news agency.
The X Prize Foundation has announced that the Conrad Award Scroll inscribed with the names of the winners of a national space-oriented high school competition, will be carried by space tourist Richard Garriott during his October flight to the International Space Station.
The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award is a competition for teams of high school students to create a concept to benefit the personal spaceflight industry. The winners, Michael Hakimi and Talia Nour-Omid of California, developed an idea for a device that would effectively monitor all of a human being’s vital signs while in space.
Game developer Richard Garriott, son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, has begun training at the Yuri Gagarin Training Center in Star City, Russia in preparation for a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) currently planned for October.
“I am quite excited to be in training now and I look forward to all aspects that it will entail,” said Richard Garriott. “But, I am particularly enthusiastic to be here in Star City, as a resident, with its amazing history of space exploration. I’m honored to surround myself with its people and I am determined to learn as much as I possibly can, inside and outside the classroom.”
Continue reading ‘Garriott Begins Cosmonaut Training Program for October ISS Flight’
Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle examines some of the unsung designers and engineers working with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites, including Matt Stinemetze, Bob Morgan, Jim Tighe, Pete Siebold, and Luke Colby.
Boyle also rounds up the latest happens at Rocketplane Global, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Space Adventures, Bigelow and other leading commercial space companies.