Famous gaming industry icon Richard Garriott, whose passion for intergalactic adventures translated recently into the upcoming MMO Tabula Rasa, is ready to finally experience the thrills of zero-gravity.
Just like his father Owen Garriott, former NASA astronaut, Richard Garriott will also fly into outer space, except that not onboard some modern NASA spacecraft. Garriott the son will pay for his travel more than $30 million to Space Adventures, the Vienna, Virginia-based firm famous for sending world’s billionaires and millionaires into orbital routes, to join the International Space Station’s crew.
The same will happen with Richard Garriott too, whose take off is scheduled for October next year. Preparations for the "commercially active" mission have already begun, but Garriott will combine his commercial activities with scientific and environmental research and educational outreach programming.
"It has always been Space Adventures' goal to open the space frontier. Now, with Richard's flight, we have designed a series of missions devoted to increase commercial involvement in manned space missions," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "It is a very rare occasion when so many commercial opportunities are available in one space mission. We encourage interested parties to contact us."
Richard Garriott will be Space Adventures’ sixth major client in 6 years. The company first inaugurated private space flights in 2001, when US multimillionaire Dennis Tito joined Soyz TM-32’s crew and orbited the Earth for 128 days.
"I am dedicating my spaceflight to science," said Mr. Garriott. "It is my goal to devote a significant amount of my time aboard the space station to science, engineering and educational projects. I understand the necessity for conducting research in extreme environments whether it is collecting microorganisms from deep sea hydrothermal vents to carrying out experiments in the continuous micro-gravity of Earth orbit." He continued, "We need to be adventurous in mind and simulate our intellects to answer today's most daunting scientific questions and to invent tomorrow's technological marvels."
Garriott, 46, who has been living along with his family in the Houston area near NASA, is no stranger to the space flights not only because of his father, but also because of his entourage.
"I think everyone has the fantasy or the desire to travel in space. But for me, I grew up in an environment where not only was my dad actually going to space but both of my next-door neighbors were astronauts, the guy behind me over the fence was an astronaut. Basically, the whole neighborhood was either astronauts or engineers in support of NASA. I just sort of assumed that one day we would all be going to space."
The first commercial research partner involved in Mr. Garriott's mission is ExtremoZyme, Inc., a biotechnology company co-founded by Owen Garriott. The company plans to conduct protein crystallization experiments in space with proteins that have important cellular functions and are usually associated with common human diseases. Having access to these superior crystals will enable researchers to learn more about the molecular details of these proteins which is essential for protein engineering and structure-guided drug design.
"Because of my career, it was almost natural for Richard to be interested in space and exploration. I am so pleased that he is able to embrace this himself and that he is dedicating his flight to research. I am very proud of him," said Owen Garriott, Mr. Garriott's father and former NASA astronaut (Skylab II/SL-3, STS-9/Spacelab-1).
Garriott’s upcoming MMO Tabula Rasa is scheduled for release this October.
