Gaming whizz reaches for the stars

18 September, 2008, 14:02

At $US 20 million, plus a year of intensive training, it’s probably the most expensive holiday in the world. But for American Richard Garriot, it’ll be a dream come true. He’s preparing to be the world’s sixth space tourist and it's Russian cosmonauts who are showing him the ropes.

Son of astronaut Owen Garriott, Richard was born in the English university city of Cambridge in 1961.

He made his fortune with the fantasy online game, Ultima series. He’s known among gamers as Lord British – the name of the ruler of a fictional kingdom created by Garriot for his computer game and also the designer’s nickname.

He's decided to spend a major part of his fortune in turning a personal fantasy into reality, and becoming the sixth space tourist ever.

“I grew up with the space programme, with of course my father and most of my neighbours also as astronauts. So I grew up around these gentlemen and I’ve been working very hard for 30 years to make this dream come true,” he says.

Richard is not the first to take a space adventure to the ISS as a tourist. Just like him, all of his predecessors had to collect around $US 20 million to reach the stars.

But calling them tourists is very relative. For their big bucks they get a year of hard training in Russia, after which they can practically call themselves real cosmonauts.

For his 11 days in orbit, Richard will have to work as a full member of the crew. And the crew is glad to have him aboard.

Yury Lonchakov, Flight Commander of the 15th ISS mission says:

“Over the months of practice we all got to know each other very well and became a united team, like a single organism.”

But in case anything goes wrong there’s always a reserve crew which has had identical training. And if needed, they are ready to substitute anyone at any moment.

For the first time in the history of tourist space flights, another tourist is among the back-up crew.  This time it’s Australian Nick Hallik – who's paid to sit on the bench.

It’ll be the 18th mission to the ISS and the crew has hard work and difficult experiments ahead. But the instructors are confident these men will pass with flying colours.

Instructor Yuriy Gidzenko says the crew has passed many tests.

“We guarantee that they are ready to take on any challenges,” he assures.

The flight itself is expected to blast off from Baikonur cosmodrome on October 12.  And till then the cosmonauts will be taking their final opportunity to sharpen their skills.