Sunday, October 12, 2008

Tourist Blasts Off in Russian Rocket - NYTimes.com:

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Oct 12 (Reuters) - U.S. business tycoon Richard Garriott blasted off into space aboard a Russian rocket on Sunday 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 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppes as planned just after 1.00 p.m. local time (0700 GMT).

Garriott, a video game developer from Texas, paid $35 million to fly into space alongside U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.

12:40 PM