Space Oddity: Lord British pays $30 million for trip to International Space Station

by Griffin McElroy { Oct 12th 2008 at 9:30PM }

Those who needed further proof of the overwhelming eccentricity of Ultima developer Richard Garriott (aka Lord British) will be pleased to hear that the NCSoft producer disembarked on a journey to the International Space Station aboard Russia's Soyuz TMA-13 capsule this morning. The reason for the $30 million extraterrestrial excursion (besides Lord B.'s desire to follow in the footsteps of his father, American astronaut Owen Garriott) was to allow the game designer to conduct experiments while aboard the station. Oh, and to ensure the eternal preservation of the human race. No biggie.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Tags: international-space-station, lord-british, richard-garriott, space

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shmil @ Oct 12th 2008 9:44PM

His circuit's dead... there's something wrong

Dopple Boppler @ Oct 12th 2008 11:01PM

Can you hear me, Lord British?
Can you hear me, Lord British?
Can you hear me, Lord British?
Can you...

shawn @ Oct 12th 2008 9:54PM

is that Joe Pesci?

TwEE @ Oct 13th 2008 3:36PM

Behind Chris Elliot?

Dash @ Oct 12th 2008 9:56PM

And by "follow in the footsteps of his father" and "ensure the preservation of the human race" we mean do huge marketing stunt for Tabula Rasa.

Well, it's a interinting market stunt though...

ExMcCloud @ Oct 12th 2008 10:18PM

Wow....U would think he could have used that 30 million for something good like helping poor people buy video games or something like that?

Sunny @ Oct 13th 2008 5:03AM

Helping poor people buy video games? Haha. Or maybe something a little more useful like, I don't know... curing diseases?

You know... just a thought.

ExMcCloud @ Oct 13th 2008 10:48AM

Or video games that teach u how to cure disease...lolz

Young_Nastyman @ Oct 12th 2008 10:18PM

great, now I have to watch the ZP review of Spanish World of Warcr...........I mean Tabula Rasa

GH @ Oct 12th 2008 10:27PM

I believe the correct word would be "embarked", which can mean to start a journey, not "DISembarked", which means to leave a vehicle. Yeah, I know, nobody likes the grammar police, but that one bugged me.

Zorink @ Oct 12th 2008 10:38PM

I wish I was rich and eccentric enough to go to space and leave my DNA there (if you know what I mean)

Lone Starr @ Oct 12th 2008 11:08PM

I wish I could stick my penis in a girl's vagina in space (if you know what I mean).

Yourself @ Oct 12th 2008 11:09PM

I wish I was rich and eccentric enough to rename myself after a country which isn't even my homeland.

Linkario @ Oct 12th 2008 11:33PM

@Yourself

"Lord British" was born in England.

Jeff @ Oct 12th 2008 11:59PM

And apparently he's a lord.

Yourself @ Oct 13th 2008 2:27AM

Born in England to American parents, then lived his entire life in the US. And he's not a 'Lord' in any sense of the word except that his fictional persona is one. Not saying he's not a British citizen, just that his sobriquet is reasonably obnoxious.

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 13th 2008 2:28PM

I resent the connotations that his nickname brings.

He malarks about the news doing random shit and everyone always blames us brits for it.

Ubiqutous Oxymoron @ Oct 12th 2008 11:23PM

This could/should have been the ultimate PR hype to promote 'dead space', he should murder everyone in the ISS and then we have to send up Peter Moore, not to deal with it, just to get him off this planet.

Premature ejaculation man @ Oct 13th 2008 2:36AM

I'd pay him $30 million to do that.

Charlie_Six @ Oct 12th 2008 11:34PM

He had $30 million to spend? o_O
Where'd he get all that money from? Seems like one of the richest game developers around... and he hasn't even made a good game in ages..

skyrous @ Oct 13th 2008 12:21AM

Yes, but the back when he did make games they were some of the best games around. He basically created the modern computer rpg genre.

And he did admit that he is spending the bulk of his fortune on this little stunt. But if he wasn't spending it on this he'd probably just build another castle... he's already built two complete with secret passages and everything.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Oct 13th 2008 12:04AM

He made his fortune back with the Ultima Series.

I also heard that the owned the rights to the lunar rover that NASA had left on the moon during the first mission.

Dash @ Oct 13th 2008 2:53PM

he's not paying all expenses. This is an ad for Tabula Rasa, if you go to the site you'll see it. Their marketing crew is paying mostly for his "journey".

But he is somewhat rich, yeah. Royalty for having the name on a box pays more then the developing itself (the brain age doctor earned some millions dollars, so I guess "Lord" here must have some good cash also)

Ethan @ Oct 13th 2008 12:36AM

Does he still own a castle of sorts?

driven2sin @ Oct 13th 2008 1:16AM

he must be hunting for the elusive mandrake root

always a pain to figure which day to harvest and where...

Josh @ Oct 13th 2008 1:28AM

What a colossal waste of money.

Premature ejaculation man @ Oct 13th 2008 2:38AM

The inanimate carbon rod will not be there to save him.

I DeX I @ Oct 13th 2008 2:43AM

Really, blowing thirty million for this? There are starving children all around the world and this is how he spends his money. Thirty million to the Russian Government for what...?

ArcticFox @ Oct 13th 2008 7:51AM

Er its HIS money to waste, he can do what the hell he likes with it, I dont think you would care for anyone telling you what to do with your money if you had $30m

SkreeHunter @ Oct 13th 2008 9:02AM

Are you helping starving children?

Personally, I was going to buy a misquito net for some African kids but I don't have any money right now since I don't have a job anymore.

Doug @ Oct 13th 2008 7:00AM

Whoa, who's serving the Hater-ade? The level of disdain in these comments is ridiculous. Of all the things to spend millions on, he can do a LOT worse. And most incredibly rich people do.

Courtney @ Oct 13th 2008 12:31PM

Agreed on the haterade.

I actually think these private trips to space may be a good thing. The space program sparked the imagination of America in a way no other scientific endeavor ever has. If private flights to space can help foster some of the level of imagination created by the Apollo and early shuttle programs, I'm all for rich people blowing their money on it. This includes the development of private spacecraft, tourists on government flights, access to zeroG simulators, etc.

Spaceflight, when I was a kid, was a dream that only dozens around the world might ever achieve. Thanks to the privatization of spaceflight, it at least may be in the reach of thousands or tens of thousands, if not more.

And yes, Garriot's flight does have something to do with this. As it became clear that people were willing to spend millions to tag along with government flights, the private spaceflight industry emerged as a realistic business model. Things like his $30 million prove to investors that it isn't insane to invest in private spaceflight companies, thereby possibly bringing to a far wider demographic than just the super rich once the technology is developed.

John Z @ Oct 13th 2008 7:32AM

You know, I liked Tabula Rasa. Maybe not enough for me to keep playing it (I'm burned out on MMOs for the time being) but it had merit and was a fairly good game. It's sad that it's failing so badly, though.

Garriott is a good guy, very creative, and it's his money anyway. It's kind of interesting, though, that as far as I know he's the first child of a human astronaut to go into space himself. Which is kinda cool.

AB @ Oct 13th 2008 7:54AM

You're right obscenely rich people waste money on other stupid shit as well--that's also terrible. That being said, there is something uniquely awful about spending 30 million for a two week vacation to space. That terribleness is compounded by the fact that he gave this money to the Russian government, which has been behaving rather poorly. This is all compounded by the fact that Richard Garriott calls himself "Lord British" for extra douche-bag-iness.

j.howlett @ Oct 13th 2008 10:16AM

i think he has been planning and paying for this trip for some time. even before bush looked into the then russian president, and maybe now secret russian president, putan's eyes and saw his soul. i think he was taken a back by recent events but he was there training.

chefgon_ign @ Oct 13th 2008 9:20AM

I hate to break it to you guys, but $30 million is not enough money to cure any diseases, nor is it enough to feed all the starving children in the world.

Donating $30 million would be a nice gesture, sure, but it certainly wouldn't have a major impact on anybody's life. Why not spend it on a once in a lifetime experience for himself? Have none of you ever spent your own money on a vacation that you could have technically gone without? It is most certainly not a foolish or evil thing to do, so leave the dude alone.

Nick8708 @ Oct 13th 2008 10:29AM

If I had the money, I would totally do the same thing. A lot of people dream of going into space as a kid...so either you gotta be good enough to get paid to go up or good enough at something else to afford to pay for passage yourself. I don't see how it's a "stunt" since it sounds like, as eccentric as this guy is, he's realizing what was probably a boyhood dream.

I would never donate more than, say, 2% of my net annual income to charity. I'm already paying quite a bit through my taxes to welfare, social security, and other government programs...aren't those basically charities? It's money for nothing, for people "less fortunate" or unable to make money themselves. As far as I'm concerned, all tax-paying citizens are already doing more than enough donating to alleviate any guilt of not donating above and beyond that to charity.

kaiswil2 @ Oct 13th 2008 11:09AM

I read this story two months ago. This must be the recap of him actually leaving... here is the full story at Wired.com

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/ff_starcity