[Ravensfort] Don Shamino's Spacecraft moved to launch pad ahead of ISS flight

[Hoffpauir, David]

Don Shamino's message:

I think it went something like, "We are seconds from liftoff and I just wanted to tell all my friends and family, 'I..... aaahhhhhh.................(gulp).................AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'"


Of course, that last bit there lasted somewhere around 20 minutes....


dsd


From: ravensfort-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org [mailto:ravensfort-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Berta Allen
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2008 10:47 PM
To: ravensfort at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Ravensfort] Don Shamino's Spacecraft moved to launch pad ahead of ISS flight

Took off beautifully this morning... missed most of it, if anyone watched, did they happen to see what Richard's/Shamino's message was at launch?  Curious to know...

~chrystal~
"Noli simul flare sorbereque"

--- On Fri, 10/10/08, Eule <eule at ecpi.com> wrote:
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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