Video game tycoon Richard Garriott returned from his space trip to the International Space Station, where he went as a working tourist. Garriott paid over $30 million for his space ticket, and judging from his comments and smile, the trip seems to have been worth every penny.

The game developer returned to Earth on Friday, October 25th, aboard Expedition 17, joined by Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko. The latter two were returning after spending six months on the International Space Station. He headed towards the space station aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-13, accompanied by astronaut Michael Fincke and cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

Richard Garriott is the first American to follow his father into space. Richard’s father, Owen Garriott, is a former NASA astronaut. He flew three times into space, during three missions that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. The proud father was in Kazakhstan to welcome his son. One of his returning companions, Volkov, is the first cosmonaut (Russian astronaut) to follow his father into space, too – his father, Alexander Volkov, is a celebrated cosmonaut.

Upon returning, Garriott called this trip a “lifelong dream”. He conducted a series of experiments, among which taking the digitized DNA of certain celebrities from different domains (such as physicist Stephen Hawking or comedian Stephen Colbert) into space.

He also analyzed the effect of flying into space on one’s body – in this case, his own body. He was also excited that he had the possibility to talk to students live, from space. He tested a series of products from sponsors and took copious amounts of pictures. The pictures were taken not only as dear memories, but to be studied by The Nature Conservancy in comparison with the photos taken by his father approximately 35 years ago.