Richard In Space!

You’ve probably read about it or heard rumors, but in case you haven’t, watch this docublog and see Richard Garriott make one of his last camera appearances in Austin before adventuring on a private mission to outer space. Not only is Garriott going to be the 6th private citizen to pay for his own ride to the International Space Station, he’s a famous game developer and currently the Executive Producer for NCsoft. He created a popular game series, Ultima, and his most recent release is Tabula Rasa.

Plus, he lives in his very own castle. I had to add that last bit in because his castle is quite famous for transforming into a haunted mansion during past Halloweens. I met Garriott years ago when I produced a segment about his castle for Austin Now, another KLRU local show that completed its last season in 2006.

I have been a Garriott fan ever since I moved back to Austin. I admit, I don’t play his games on a regular basis – I probably wouldn’t sleep if I did! But I am fascinated with his eccentric nature. He refers to himself as one of his Ultima game characters, Lord British. He has a castle full of extraordinary, mystical collectibles, his father is astronaut Owen Garriott, he’s explored the Titanic, and now he’s about to accomplish a life long dream that he was told wouldn’t happen (watch the docublog for details). Despite all the fame and fortune throughout his career, Garriott is one of the most welcoming, genuinely nice people I’ve met on a professional level. He was very patient in spending hours showing me and my crew his home for the castle story. And most recently when I interviewed him about his upcoming space trip, he gave the crew mission sleeve patches.

Garriott isn’t buying his own ticket to just look at the scenery and float around in space. He’s working on many projects that you can read up on his Richard in Space blog that follows his whole training process plus mission updates.

And, to make this trip a little more fun for his fellow gamers, Garriott’s tying his current game, Tabula Rasa, into his mission. NCsoft is calling this Operation Immortality, and during the campaign, Tabula Rasa players have a chance to have their DNA sequenced, digitized and sent into space on the Immortality Drive. In addition, all players with active accounts on September 2, 2008 will have their Tabula Rasa characters uploaded to the device, giving them the opportunity to go to space virtually. Celebrities such as musician Eric Johnson, and author Tracy Hickman are also providing their digitized DNA for the mission. Pretty geeky, but fun!

Commercial Space Flight is a commonly used term by Garriott as he would like to see companies take steps towards exploring space, which could excel our knowledge further and faster about the unknown. I can’t help but feel that Garriott will be making history as the first person to set the stage for making spaceflight more accessible and common to our society. Does that mean I’ll be going to space someday? Hee hee - that’s a thought - probably not. But I bet I will meet more people who will.

Check out ADDITIONAL FOOTAGE that I wasn’t able to include in the story for broadcast:

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