Newsgroup: it.discussioni.ufo
Titolo: ferie spaziali

U.S. space tourist confident ahead of blast-off
     By Maria Golovnina
     BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Richard Garriott, a
U.S. space tourist due to travel to space on a Russian spaceship
on Sunday, said he was unfazed by the prospect of a bumpy ride
back to Earth, saying he expected
to land safely.
     Crews returning from the International Space Station have
suffered from rough landings and massive gravitational force
after Russia's Soyuz capsules slid off into dangerous "ballistic
re-entry" twice in a row over the past year.
    Richard Garriott, a U.S. video game tycoon who paid more
than $30 million for his ticket, played down these concerns.
     "I don't think it will bother me in the least," he told
Reuters at Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
     "I don't
think we are going to have one (ballistic landing),
but if we did, it would not concern me. It's still considered a
pretty normal re-entry. I am confident my return will be safe."
     In April, a South Korean space tourist said she feared death
when
her Soyuz capsule entered the atmosphere in the wrong place
and plunged the craft into the steppes of central Kazakhstan in
a steep descent.
     Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, will travel
to the ISS to conduct scientific experiments
alongside U.S.
astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.
     The blast off is due on 1:03 p.m. (0503 GMT) on Sunday. He
will travel back with an outgoing ISS crew on Oct. 24.
     GEARING UP
     As preparations proceeded
ahead of the takeoff, the Russian
spaceship was rolled across the barren landscape and fixed at
its launch pad on Friday -- the very venue used by Yuri Gagarin
in 1961 when he became the first man in space.
     Garriott's father -- who had come to the
  sprawling
Soviet-era cosmodrome set up originally as a clandestine missile
test facility -- appeared relaxed as he observed the
preparations on a bleak windy morning.
     "I am not particularly apprehensive or nervous because this
is a very reliable
  rocket," he said, gesturing at the Soyuz
spacecraft, Russian and U.S. flags painted on its sleek body.
     "He is very well prepared. He has trained for almost a year
with the Russians."
     His son's training, mostly carried out at a space centre
near Moscow, were overshadowed by a sharp deterioration in
U.S.-Russian relations over Moscow's war with Georgia but
Garriott said politics was of little interest to scientists.
     "It has had an exactly zero impact on my dealings with the
Russian
side. But I have definitely felt some tensions coming
across from the political side of the U.S. but even that has
been minor," he said.
     "If you look at the cosmonauts or astronauts, every one of
them makes it very clear: we believe that space is
a non
political shared environment."
....
reuters.net
   Keywords: SPACE KAZAKHSTAN/

    Keywords: SPACE KAZAKHSTAN/
Beh :) Per chi non lo conosce, Richard Garriott è il papà della serie
Ultima Online (lo conoscevano in-game con il nomignolo di Lord British).
Nonché ideatore dell'ultimo capolavoro mancato Tabula Rasa (PC).
A dire il vero, parte del suo biglietto da turista spaziale lo ha staccato
proprio NCsoft (l'aienda che ha finanziato il progetto di Tabula Rasa
insieme a Garriott) =>
http://www.iniziopartita.it/article.asp?sez0=1&sez1=0&art=7852
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