spacetoday.net: Astronaut's son to be next orbital space tourist

Posted: Fri, Sep 28, 2007, 2:06 PM ET (1806 GMT)
Garriott, Richard (richardinspace.com)

The son of a former NASA astronaut will be the next commercial passenger to visit the International Space Station, space tourism company Space Adventures announced Friday. Richard Garriott, the CEO of the North American division of computer gaming company NCSoft, will fly to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is the son of Owen Garriott, who flew two missions on the Skylab and Space Shuttle programs. Richard Garriott will be the first son of a NASA astronaut to also fly in space; the son of a Russian cosmonaut is expected to fly earlier next year. Garriott plans to devote much of his flight to scientific experiments, and one company, ExtremoZyme, co-founded by his father, has already planned to sponsor some research on that flight. Garriott will become the six person to visit the ISS as a commercial passenger.