Gizmodo: cosmonauts

Richard Garriott Arrives at ISS, Reportedly Ready to Fix the Toilet

John Herrman — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 04:59:27 EDT

The Soyuz TMA-13, carrying computer game rich guy, son of an astronaut, and current space tourist Richard Garriott has successfully docked with the International Space Station as of 8:26 GMT (3:26 EST). The three-man crew just finished floating around in orbit for a few days, and are now commencing their scheduled missions. For the two astronauts, that means spending six months building new life support equipment for future crews; for Garriott, that means ten days of floating around, giggling and getting sick on piles of freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream.

He'll also be carrying out some scientific duties, photographing the earth's surface to compare to pictures taken nearly 40 years ago by his father. Whether they'll be able to fix their most pressing problem — a broken toilet — will be apparent in a few days. Garriott's crew will be installing a second facility and repairing the first, which has performed sporadically over the last few months. It remains to be seen whether or not game design skills transfer to zero-gravity toilet repair, but if not the results could be spectacular. [BBC]

Richard Garriott Reaches Orbit, Can Finally Act Out Plot of Tabula Rasa

Jack Loftus — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Computer game millionaire Richard Garriott is now in orbit. At about 3 a.m., the current luckiest geek in the world blasted off in a Soyuz TMA-13 capsule alongside U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov. The three will circle the Earth a few times before docking with the International Space Station on Tuesday. At that time, Garriott will conduct a series of experiments that will probably not include level grinding in his sci-fi MMORPG, Tabula Rasa. One thing Garriott and company may not be able to do when they reach the ISS? Go to the bathroom. Update: Now with video:

This is because the $19 million toilet (?!) isn't sucking up waste like it's supposed to—just as it wasn't doing a few months ago. A replacement pooper isn't scheduled to arrive until November.

Frankly, we don't know what's worse this morning: The fact that a white-knuckle ballistic re-entry could be in Garriott's future (as it was for Soyuz capsule cosmonauts over the past few years); or that floating, zero-G space poo could turn his once-in-a-lifetime journey into the world's worst obstacle course.

[AP, MSNBC]

A Look Inside Russia's Star City, Where Cosmonauts Are Made

John Mahoney — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:10:00 EDT

Wired has a great feature on Richard Garriott, the father of MMORPG OG Ultima and the latest millionaire to get blasted up to the ISS as a paying tourist. More specifically, the grueling 8 months of training Garriott must first endure at Zvyozdny Gorodok, (Star City), a.k.a. Yuri's house, a.k.a. where space flight was born. All tourists on the ISS must be capable of performing mission-critical duties in the case of an emergency, and Wired followed Garriott through the historic site every step of the way, grabbing fantastic photos of this incredibly historic facility in the process. All photos by Benedict Redgrove: Inside Star City you'll find Gagarin idols everyhwere, full-size Soyuz mockups (top), massive Cold War era centrifuges and, often, no hot water. It is here where Space Adventures travelers like Garriott must learn to perform nearly every task that the mission's actual cosmonauts will perform, in case of emergencies (even though the most glamorous duty he'll probably end up doing is emptying the toilet). And, eventually face this (emphasis my own):

All this is nothing compared with the TsF-18 centrifuge. Weighing 300 tons and measuring 59 feet long, it looks like a giant blue phallus. It spins at 170 miles per hour, and riders are instructed not to open their mouth while in motion because the pressure will break their jaw, according to Driga. "It is like nightmare," she adds. "Imagine being buried deep in sand and wanting to move but cannot."

Many more photos and a really nice read at: [Wired]