Soyuz carrying Austin tourist on way to space station Soyuz launches with ex-astronaut's son

Entrepreneur from Austin paid $30 million for space station trip

Richard Garriott, the son of a former NASA astronaut, is the world's sixth space tourist since 2001. Richard Garriott, the son of a former NASA astronaut, is the world's sixth space tourist since 2001. Photo: DMITRY LOVETSKY, AP Photo: DMITRY LOVETSKY, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Soyuz carrying Austin tourist on way to space station 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

After a flawless liftoff on Sunday, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft sped toward the international space station carrying three American and Russian astronauts, including Austin space tourist Richard Garriott.

The spacecraft was on course to dock with the 220-mile-high orbital outpost on Tuesday, shortly before 4 a.m. CDT.

The Soyuz capsule carries NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, 41, who will take command of the station through April, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, 43, who will serve alongside Fincke as the station's flight engineer.

Garriott, the 47-year-old son of former NASA Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott, paid the Russian space agency $30 million to become the world's sixth space tourist since 2001.

"I am so thankful for this opportunity," Richard Garriott wrote on the Web site of Space Adventures, the Virginia-based company that brokered his 11-day mission.

The Soyuz rose from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:01 a.m. CDT. The launch was monitored in Houston by NASA's Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center.

Though born in Cambridge, England, Richard Garriott grew up in Nassau Bay, one of the Houston suburbs surrounding NASA's Johnson Space Center, while his father trained for and flew a 60-day mission aboard Skylab in 1973 and a 10-day space shuttle flight in 1983.

Unable to meet the medical requirements to become an astronaut, the younger Garriott used his skills as a software programmer to develop computer games, including the Ultima series. He found the new field so lucrative that he dropped out of the University of Texas, but he stayed in Austin, where he lives in a modern-day castle that overlooks the city.

During his flight, Richard Garriott will participate in medical experiments and educational activities, as well as monitor experiments sponsored by drug companies.

The Austin entrepreneur is scheduled to return to Earth late on Oct. 23 with Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, the station's current commander and flight engineer, aboard a second Soyuz parked at the orbital outpost.

Fincke's crew will oversee the installation and activation of new life-support equipment on the station. The gear, which is scheduled to be delivered during a November space shuttle mission, will equip the station to accommodate six full-time astronauts in May.

"This is a pretty pivotal mission for us," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's spaceflight chief. "These guys will be very, very busy."

mark.carreau@chron.com