Adventurer home after 23m Russian space trip
American Richard Garriott paid about $30 million (€23.67m) for a 10-day stay on the space station. He is the son of a NASA astronaut and the first American to follow a parent into space.
Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko spent six months on the station. Mr Volkov is a cosmonaut’s son.
“What a great ride that was,” said Garriott.
Wrapped in a blanket against the near-freezing temperature, he smiled.
Garriott was greeted by his father, Owen Garriott, a retired NASA astronaut who flew on the US space station Skylab in 1973.
“Hey, Papa-san,” said Richard Garriott, 47. The pair shook hands.
“How come you look so fresh and ready to go?” Owen Garriott, 77, asked his son. “Because I’m fresh and ready to go — again,” he replied.
