The $18 MILLION Dollar Space Visit!!!!!!!

by **J The Kidd** Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:00 am

British born space tourist Richard Garriott is enjoying his first
full day in space today after he became the first son of a Nasa
astronaut to leave the Earth.

Mr Garriott, 47, blasted-off in a Soyuz craft from Kasakhstan yesterday, watched by his father and girlfriend.

He will dock at the International Space Station, 225 miles above Earth, today.

While his father Owen flew to the Skylab in 1973 for Nasa, Mr
Garriott, a computer games tycoon, paid £18million to the Russian space
agency to make the trip.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft lifted off in clear weather from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppes just after 1.00pm

Garriott's father, Owen, watched the blast off through binoculars on an
observation platform and Garriott's girlfriend, Kelly Miller, burst
into tears.

'I am very happy for him. It is one of the things he really wanted to
do,' Miller said as others opened Champagne to celebrate the successful
launch.

'I can see he is really enjoying it like a little kid in the candy shop,' Miller said.

The $18 MILLION Dollar Space Visit!!!!!!! FUCKYOUPAYMEMOSTUNDERRATEDOVERWORKEDUNDERPAID

Space officials said the Soyuz rocket had reached orbit safely and
would dock with the International Space Station in about two days.

'He made it, he made it into orbit. It is marvellous,' said Owen
Garriott, a physicist who was selected as an astronaut by NASA for his
scientific background. He spent 60 days in space in 1973 and another
ten days in 1983.

After 10 days in space Garriott will return to Earth with the ISS's
former crew aboard a Soyuz re-entry vehicle, a three-person capsule
which has malfunctioned on its last two flights.

In April, a Soyuz capsule landed 260 miles off course after explosive
bolts failed to detonate before re-entry, sending the craft into a
steep descent.

Last year, a Soyuz capsule carrying Malaysia's first astronaut also
made a so-called 'ballistic' landing, similarly blamed on faulty bolts.

The $18 MILLION Dollar Space Visit!!!!!!! FUCKYOUPAYMEMOSTUNDERRATEDOVERWORKEDUNDERPAID