The spacecraft Soyuz TMA-13 which carried the first space tourist along with two crew members docked on Tuesday before schedule at the International Space Station over Kazakhstan around 0826 GMT.
Yuri Lonchakov and Mike Fincke were the two-crew members who received Richard Garriott who was on a ten-day space trip having paid $30 million towards it. Richard Garriott aged 47 is a computer games designer.
Garriott was heartily welcomed on board by spaceman Sergei Volkov. The hatches on the ISS were opened between the station and the capsule at 0955 GMT. Cosmonaut father of Volkov was in space orbit even as the Soviet Union collapsed in the year 1991. Richard Garriott was welcomed with a hug from Volkov.
Garriott’s father Owen who was watching the docking from the mission control on the outskirts of Moscow, was ecstatic and said everything was going well and they were on their way to a fascinating adventure. In 1973, Owen spent 60 days on the Skylab Station.
Owen also added that there was a lot of confidence that things would go well and there was no sign of any nervousness during the launch. Volkov and Garriott are the first two children of former space adventurers to meet in space according to NASA.
Garriott is a space tourist who was blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh Steppe along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and astronaut Micheal Fincke on Sunday.
Volkov has been in Space on the station since April. He will return with Garriott to Earth on 23rd October.
