[Ansteorra-announce] Don Shamino's Spacecraft moved to launch pad ahead of ISS flight

[Eule]

A messge from Don Shamino/Richard......
 
Eule/Steve
Unus sed Leo
 
  _____  


In my speed to respond, I failed to realize how many people were on this
thread....

 

I will soon be off the net, even off the earth, for a time.

Let me take a moment to say thanks to all of you!

My family, my friends and my co-workers who are also family to me.

I am just over a day from launch, it is a much more emotional time than
I expected.

 

I have thouroghly enjoyed my training and the people I have met along
this journey.

But I have regularly thought of you all as well.

I wish you could all be here to share in this whole experience.

Many of you have been with my for years and years and truely helped me
make this journey, and so I hope you get something out of this as well.

 

I will be home in a few short weeks, though I have threatened to stow
away,and I think they are beginning to believe me.

(Many Trainers, Astronauts and Cosmonauts have even helped me plan for
it!)

When I get home I will have lots of stories and pictures to share.

In fact I already do.

I would say my time has already been worth while, and I have yet to even
fly.

 

Please send my love to all of our friends, co-workers and those that
play with us.

 

I hope you get a chance to watch.

I have a message for you durring launch. :)

 

 - Richard

  

  _____  


Link (with pics):
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gVmXiJGB7S--M-E06nd_2DUW5sqQD93NLDP80

 


Spacecraft moved to launch pad ahead of ISS flight


 


By PETER LEONARD - 

 

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) - Friends and family of the world's next space
tourist - including his astronaut father - watched Friday as the rocket
for the voyage was placed on a launch pad in Kazakhstan for its weekend
takeoff to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft, mounted on a three-stage rocket, traveled
at daybreak for 3 miles by railroad from an assembly hangar to the
Baikonur launch area. 

 

On Sunday it blasts off with American software millionaire Richard
Garriott on board. Garriott paid $30 million dollars to travel to the
International Space Station, where he will spend about 10 days taking
photographs and conducting a range of medical and physical experiments. 

 

Also on the flight will be U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.

Launch preparations were going well, International Space Station Program
deputy manager Kirk Shireman said Friday.

"It has been very efficient and very quick. It's a system and a process
that has worked tremendously successfully over the years," he said.
"We're looking forward to a successful launch on Sunday." 

 

The rocket's installation at the launch pad was watched by dozens of
friends, colleagues and family members, including Garriott's father,
Owen, a two-time space traveler who took extensive photographs of the
Earth's surface during his stay on the U.S. orbital station Skylab in
1973. 

 

Garriott is a board member and investor in Space Adventures, Ltd., a
U.S.-based company that has organized flights aboard Russian craft for
five other millionaires including the first paying space tourist,
California businessman Dennis Tito, in 2001.

He plans to carry out experiments during his voyage, including one
involving protein crystal growth, on behalf of companies that he says
have footed a "meaningful percentage" of the bill. 

 

He has also said he would take photos to record how the Earth's surface
has changed in the 35 years since his father's voyage.

The launch is scheduled for 3:01 a.m. EDT Sunday. 

 

Garriott returns to Earth later this month with Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Volkov, who has been at the space station since April.

Volkov also has followed his father, a decorated cosmonaut from the
Soviet era, in traveling to space. But Garriott was unable to do so as
an astronaut due to poor eyesight.

 

 

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