Tycoon Follows Father Into Space

A British-born computer game designer has gone into space on board a Russian rocket, paying around £20m for his 10-day trip.

Garriott prepares for blast off

Richard Garriott, 47, from Texas, becomes the sixth space tourist and the first offspring of a Nasa astronaut to go into orbit.

His father, retired physicist Owen Garriott, spent 60 days there in 1973 and another 10 days in 1983.

The younger Garriott dreamed of space as a child and was shattered to learn that he could never become a Nasa astronaut because of his poor eyesight.

Before blasting off from Kazakhstan, the multi-millionaire said he hoped the trip would provide a strong model for financing private space travel in the coming years.

"What I am trying to do is demonstrate that you can mount a very successful campaign to go into space and beyond because it's good business," Mr Garriott said.

Soyuz rocket takes off

Friends and family cheered as his Soyez rocket hurtled into a clear blue sky.

His father Owen Garriott, 77, said: "I'm elated, elated. He made it, he made it into orbit. It is marvellous".

His son's girlfriend, Kelly Miller, added: "This is so cool. I am very happy for him. It is one of the things he really wanted to do. I can see he is really enjoying it like a little kid in the candy shop."

His crewmates on the landmark 100th manned Soyuz flight are veteran US astronaut Mike Fincke, who spent six months on the international space station in 2004, and Russian Yuri Lonchakov.

The rocket is due to dock with the international space station on Tuesday, where Mr Garriott will spend over a week conducting experiments.

He will also photograph Earth to measure changes since his father took pictures from the US station Skylab in 1973.

Richard Garriott's father celebrates

Mr Garriott said he managed to recoup a significant slice of his trip's price through some of his experiments, involving sponsorship.

One of his most eye-catching ones has been to take the digitised DNA sequences of some of the world greatest minds and musicians - as well as athletes, video game players and others - to the space station.

The list ranges from famed physicist Stephen Hawking to comedian Stephen Colbert and Matt Morgan, best known as the "Beast" from the US television show "American Gladiators."