Posted October 23, 2008 3:59 PM
By Phil Hylands
Like Father Like Son
Like father like son is an old saying and sometimes sons follow their fathers into their professions. Millionaire computer games designer, Richard Garriott, has now followed his father into becoming an astronaut as he was launched to the International Space Station on SOYUZ TMA-13 on 12th October. But while his crewmates U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov of the flight from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan did not have to pay for the pleasure, Garriot is reported to have paid around US$30 million for his ten days in orbit.
Richard Garriot’s father, Owen Garriott, was a NASA astronaut from 1965 to 1986. During this period he carried out two space missions: one to America’s first space station SKYLAB in 1973 and one on a Shuttle SpaceLab mission in 1983. But while there has been a lot in the press about Garriott being the first second generation "astronaut" to fly in space, this is not actually true. In fact, the first second generation spaceman was already in orbit when Richard Garriott was launched. The current commander of the International Space Station, Cosmonaut Sergey Aleksandrovich Volkov, is the son of Cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, who joined Russia’s cosmonaut corps in 1978 and retired in 1998. During that time the older Volkov carried out three space missions,SOYUZ T-14 in 1985, SOYUZ TM-7 in 1988 and SOYUZ TM-13 in 1991.
Sergey Volkov and Richard Garriott along with cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko are expected to return to Earth on SOYUZ TMA-12 on 23rd October. And their proud fathers are expected to be close by to greet their boys home.
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