News Room Contributor Posts: 8020 Joined: 12 Nov 2002 | Lord British In Space
Ultima mastermind Richard Garriott has been successfully launched into orbit, but contrary to popular belief it wasn't done as punishment for Tabula Rasa.
Garriott will spend ten days at the International Space Station following the trip aboard a Soyuz TMA-13, which lifted off at 3:01 am EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The famed designer coughed up roughly $30 million for the opportunity to go into space, becoming the sixth "space tourist" to hitch a ride on a Russian spacecraft since Dennis Tito made the first such voyage in 2001.
He isn't planning on being entirely idle during his orbital vacation, however. According to the BBC, he plans on carrying out experiments on behalf of several companies that covered a "meaningful percentage" of the cost of his trip, including one involving protein crystal growth, and also said he would like to take photos from orbit to record changes in the Earth's surface since the trip of his father, Owen Garriott, an astronaut who spent 60 days aboard the U.S. space station Skylab in 1973.
Garriott took some ribbing for another experiment he announced this summer, Operation Immortality, in which he planned to collect the DNA of luminaries from across a wide range of human endeavor, ranging from Stephen Hawking to Stephen Colbert, and take it into space as "humanity's saved game," to serve as a failsafe against a planet-wide cataclysm. Garriott's time onboard the ISS is scheduled to end on October 23.
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Gone Gonzo Posts: 4549 Joined: 25 Feb 2008 | Good for him, do you think if we ask really nicely they'll leave him up there? For the sake of humanity you understand. |
Beat Writer Posts: 201 Joined: 11 Apr 2008 | Stephen Colbert needed to be preserved for future generations. This single act of good far outstrips the evils of inflicting TR on an unsuspecting world. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 783 Joined: 27 Aug 2008 | Stephen Colbert being preserved forever? Awesome. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 1419 Joined: 2 Mar 2008 | You know, despite what anyone (myself included) has said about Richard Garriott, the fact is, he's in space, and we're not. he's doing what most people never will, and what many have dreamed of. Luckily, I am not one of these people, mostly because of the various Gundam series. When we have stuff like that, then I'll want to go into space. |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 4135 Joined: 6 Sep 2008 | Lord Garriot's body finally joins his brain, INNN SPPPAACCEEEE! |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 884 Joined: 19 Sep 2008 | Surely there are about 6 billion people more worthy than Stephen Colbert? |
Gone Gonzo Posts: 4135 Joined: 6 Sep 2008 | AuntyEthel:
Surely there are about 6 billion people more worthy than Stephen Colbert?
No, there really isn't.
Though actually I think the wit of his show has been suffering lately... I blame the election season. |
Pulitzer Laureate Posts: 884 Joined: 19 Sep 2008 | TsunamiWombat:
AuntyEthel:
Surely there are about 6 billion people more worthy than Stephen Colbert?
No, there really isn't.
Though actually I think the wit of his show has been suffering lately... I blame the election season.
I just find him irrelevant because I'm not American. |
Lord British In Space
Ultima mastermind Richard Garriott has been successfully launched into orbit, but contrary to popular belief it wasn't done as punishment for Tabula Rasa.
Garriott will spend ten days at the International Space Station following the trip aboard a Soyuz TMA-13, which lifted off at 3:01 am EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The famed designer coughed up roughly $30 million for the opportunity to go into space, becoming the sixth "space tourist" to hitch a ride on a Russian spacecraft since Dennis Tito made the first such voyage in 2001.
He isn't planning on being entirely idle during his orbital vacation, however. According to the BBC, he plans on carrying out experiments on behalf of several companies that covered a "meaningful percentage" of the cost of his trip, including one involving protein crystal growth, and also said he would like to take photos from orbit to record changes in the Earth's surface since the trip of his father, Owen Garriott, an astronaut who spent 60 days aboard the U.S. space station Skylab in 1973.
Garriott took some ribbing for another experiment he announced this summer, Operation Immortality, in which he planned to collect the DNA of luminaries from across a wide range of human endeavor, ranging from Stephen Hawking to Stephen Colbert, and take it into space as "humanity's saved game," to serve as a failsafe against a planet-wide cataclysm. Garriott's time onboard the ISS is scheduled to end on October 23.
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