Space tourist heads back to Earth
24 October, 2008, 00:20
The crew of the 17th space mission has left the International Space Station. Two Russian cosmonauts and the sixth space tourist, American Richard Garriott, have moved to the Soyuz spacecraft that will carry them back to Earth.
The Soyuz-TMA spaceship will land in Kazakhstan on Friday morning. More than 15 civilian and military aircraft will ensure the safe return of the crew.
The cosmonauts, Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, spent half a year at the station while Garriott had only a short stay of two weeks.
Remarkably, Volkov and Garriott are second-generation space-travellers. Garriott's father was an astronaut and Volkov's father a cosmonaut.
Richard Garriott reportedly paid as much as $US 30 million for his seat.
NASA's astronauts Gregory Chamitoff and Michael Fincke and Russia's Yury Lonchakov will continue their mission onboard the ISS.
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