2nd Generation Astronaut Blasts Into Space

Richard Garriott, whose father was a U.S. astronaut, today blasted off aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the International Space Station.

Garriott, who was a guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com. got a seat on the Soyuz through Space Adentures, the only private company that provides human space missions. He is now officially part of the Expedition 18 crew, which includes NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

In preparation for his spaceflight, Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, completed a cosmonaut-training program at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in Star City, Russia. Garriott now is the world’s first second-generation astronaut.

Space Adventures became world renowned in 2001 with the launch of client Dennis Tito, the world’s first privately funded spaceflight participant. Since then, the company has launched four other individuals to space.

Garriott is not just going along for the ride. He will participate in a wide range of activities, including communicating with students associated with the Challenger Center for Space Education via a NASA-sponsored teleconference and conducting two science experiments designed by primary and secondary students from the United Kingdom in partnership with the British National Space Center.

He will also perform a series of experiments that will study the physical impact of spaceflight on astronauts. Garriott will observe the reaction of the eyes to low and high pressure in a microgravity environment; the effects of spaceflight on the human immune system; and astronauts’ sleep/wake patterns and sleep characteristics.

Perhaps of greatest interest, Garriott will photograph a number of ecologically significant places on Earth. These photographs will be compared to shots taken 35 years ago by his father while in space. Together, Garriott and The Nature Conservancy will review the images to document how the Earth has changed in one generation.

A number of other experiments are also on his agenda.