Apparently, a zero-G flight isn't enough for Richard Garriott. The well-known game developer has just shelled out about US$ 30 million to become the sixth paying visitor to the International Space Station. Read more in the full article.

Looks like Lord British's flight to outer space is a go. Richard Garriott, executive producer of, well, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, has officially started preparations to make the trip to the International Space Station (ISS) a year from now. Garriott will be among one of the first batch from the private sector to board the ISS.

Garriott's father, Owen Garriott, a former NASA astronaut, will also be heading for the ISS for research on biotechnology. Richard Garriott himself says of his trip to space:

I am dedicating my spaceflight to science. It is my goal to devote a significant amount of my time aboard the space station to science, engineering and educational projects. I understand the necessity for conducting research in extreme environments whether it is collecting microorganisms from deep sea hydrothermal vents to carrying out experiments in the continuous micro-gravity of Earth orbit. We need to be adventurous in mind and stimulate our intellects to answer today’s most daunting scientific questions and to invent tomorrow’s technological marvels.

Garriott will go to space (it's a little weird to say it so casually) via Space Adventures, the private space travel company. If you have a couple of millions in your pocket maybe you can make the trip yourself and join Tabula Rasa's creator. If not, join us as we sit and wait for the game's release.

"Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space" from the band Spiritualized should have been the perfect theme song for one of the world's leading theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking and Tabula Rasa's Richard Garriott as the two and a handful of others soared through a zero-gravity flight last Thursday.

The momentous event for Hawking (he's been in his wheel chair for four decades now because of ALS) took place inside the cabin of a modified 727 over the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Canaveral. The flight took a total of eight parabolas - the same flight technique astronauts experienced during weightless space environment preparations.

Speaking of which, Richard Garriott mentioned that they only planned for six parabolas but Hawking was grinning widely and seen as really having a great time. Garriott, who is the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, added, "six parabolas really was the intended cutoff point. But he was having so much fun, we went for two more, and then we thought we'd better quit while we're ahead."

Aside from the obvious reason that Hawking wanted to get out of his wheel chair, he explained that he joined the flight because he believes that the future of man lies outside of this endangered world. He commented,

I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically-engineered virus or other dangers, I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.

Hawking was accompanied by several people during the flight including four physicians, two nurses, two coaches, and two dozen other friends. The famed physicist announced plans for another zero-gravity flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to celebrate his 65th birthday in January.