US Space Tourist Blasts Off in Russian Rocket
US video game magnate Richard Garriott blasted off into space aboard a Russian rocket on Sunday, October 12, 2008, watched by his father, a NASA astronaut who went into space at the height of the Cold War. The Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft lifted off in clear weather from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppes just after 1.00 p.m (0700 GMT). A video game developer from Texas, Garriott paid $35 million to fly into space alongside U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.