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Millionaire Richard 'Lord British' Garriott Docks with International Space Station
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by Rob Walker | October 14, 2008 at 11:45 am
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Richard Garriott, a visionary game designer, just couldn't resist adding the word 'astronaut' to his list of feats. Not enough to almost single-handedly make popular the massively multiplayer and role playing video game genres, he had to go up in space as well.
He's following a dream he's held since he was a child, when his hopes of space-faring were dashed by doctors who told him he had poor eyesight. Now, Garriott has paid around $30 million for the flight, which will take him aboard the international space station and will stay there for a total of 12 days.
Space tourist Richard Garriott, a video game developer from Austin, Texas, docked with the ISS (International Space Station) at 8:26 GMT (3:26 EST) aboard a Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft which launched on Sunday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He joined American astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov on Expedition 18 to the outpost and will remain there for another 10 days.Richard is the son of Owen Garriott, an American astronaut who spent 60 days in space aboard Skylab in 1973.
Garriott, along with his father, brother and others, created Origin Systems, one of the most influential game developers in that company's short lifespan. They created the widely-known Ultima series. Origin was bought by mega-developer Electronic Arts in 1992.
By the time he developed his third installment, the games had such a large following that Garriott (along with his brother, Robert, and father and others) established Origin Systems, their own video game publisher, to handle the publishing and distribution of his title, now available on several platforms. Origin went on to become one of the most influential game developers in the history of video games.
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at 12:22 on October 14th, 2008
This is a random day of second generation space reunion glee: Richard's dad, Owen was an astronaut and on board the ISS, Richard will be meeting Sergei Volkov, son of Cosmonaut Alexander Volkov.
And if you think being a spaceman is all glory, you should read about Richard's training in the famous Star City