The son of a retired astronaut is about to follow his father into orbit, after buying a $30 million ticket for a seat on a Russian rocket.
Richard Garriott, who made his fortune in computer games, is scheduled to blast off aboard a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in October 2008 on a one-week trip to the international space station.
Garriott is 46 and lives in a medieval-style mansion in Austin, Texas, complete with its own dungeon and secret passages. The house is modeled after the setting of his "Ultima" video games.
Richard Garriott, a University of Texas dropout, developed the "Ultima" series, a computer game franchise, and with his brother, Robert, founded Origin Systems, a computer game developer and publisher. He also co-founded the North American arm of NCsoft, an online game developer and publisher. His newest game, "Tabula Rasa", is due out in October.
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