Q. What were the feelings you had at the moment of launch and when you reached zero gravity?
Launch of the Soyuz with Richard Garriott aboard (Courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Soyuz spacecraft with Richard Garriott aboard (Courtesy of NASA)
Let me give you the sequence. As you are preparing for launch, one of the most fascinating aspects of launch on a Russian Soyuz is that there is no countdown. You know, in America, it’s “ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…” and launch. And in Russia, there’s no countdown. Instead, you’re just going through the checklist. You know, you make sure a certain valve is open. You make sure a certain valve is closed. You make sure a certain button has been pressed. And then you get to a line item that says “start.” And then at that exact time it starts. But there was no real countdown. So it’s fascinating that it just kind of happens.
And unlike the space flights that appear to be very loud and have lots of vibrations, the Russian Soyuz is almost perfectly silent on the inside. And it is perfectly smooth. You can barely feel it moving as it begins to rise off the launch pad. It feels more like a confident ballet move lifting you ever faster into the sky, than like a sports car at a green light, where you drop the clutch and peel out from the stop sign.
And then, the period of launch only lasts about eight and a half minutes, as you’re pressed to the back of your very comfortable seat. At the end of eight and a half minutes, the engines cut off and now you are floating in microgravity. And the feeling of floating in microgravity is also exceptional. I did not feel sick, fortunately. Instead, I felt great joy and freedom to be floating freely inside our space capsule. When you ask, was the experience what I’d imagined, it was as good as I imagined, but very different than I imagined in many ways. Like the launch sequence.
Q. What was the most deeply impressive thing during your space flight?
The most profound aspect of space travel was looking back at the Earth over the two weeks that I was in space. Seeing the Earth from space over a period of two weeks is truly a life-changing event, as you slowly discover, just by looking, all of the Earth’s operations and natural mechanics, like weather and erosion and tectonic plate movement. They’re just wonderful to see from space.
But the most important thing to see from space is the impact of humanity on the surface of the Earth. It becomes very clear that humanity is now everywhere that is easy to occupy on the Earth. Even the swampy Amazon basin, or the high alpine snowy mountains, or the vast deserts of the Earth, those are also now crisscrossed with roads and have dams and deep wells and farms. The amount of exploitation of even those remote and difficult areas of the Earth is shocking. And so it very much reminds me, it makes me feel strongly about environmental causes.
Q. During your stay on the ISS, you also took part in scientific experiments. Can you tell us about this?
Richard Garriott (right) and the microsatellite SPHERES (Courtesy of NASA)
I had about 30 scientific experiments that I was involved in. I would actually say that for a two-week period in space, I had more tasks, more science that I undertook and accomplished than any other, or at least as many as any other astronaut in history. In particular, one of my main areas was protein crystal growth, but there were others. I did some for NASA. I believe a couple of my medical volunteer experiments were even for JAXA, where I was involved in a bone-density study. And some motion sickness studies. I did work for the European Space Agency. Also for the Russian Space Agency. Even the Korean Space Agency.
I definitely think that the experiment about astronauts’ eyes got good results. I mentioned that I had poor eyesight as a child. But as an adult, I have had laser eye surgery to correct my vision. And there is no astronaut before me who has flown in space who has had corrective surgery on their vision. So even NASA was very interested to study my eyes and how they reacted to microgravity. I was involved in a very detailed study of my eyes that took months before my flight, involved numerous experiments during my flight, as well as many follow-up experiments after my flight. And it has now been determined – well, at least with a sample of one – that space flight does not interfere with your visual acuity, even after you have had laser eye surgery. And laser eye surgery is now approved for NASA and other ISS partner astronauts.
There were definitely some surprises and confirmations. For example, the confirmation would be the thing with my eyes. I was the first test case, so no one really knew, but the theories are supported by the fact that my eyes were fine. The space agencies are conservative enough that they had never taken the risk of allowing anyone to fly who had had laser eye surgery. And so it was nice to get confirmation from a private flier that in fact the theories were correct.
Q. Have you been interested in science since you were a child?
Richard Garriott investigating meteorites in Antarctica (Courtesy of Richard Garriott)
Yes, in fact, one of our family habits was, whenever our family would go somewhere very unusual for a vacation, we would always do scientific experiments. For example, when I would travel with my father to Antarctica, or to deep sea hydrothermal vents, we always did things like bringing back scientific samples of the extremophile bacteria that live in these unusual and exotic conditions. And we provided those samples to university researchers or often sponsored research ourselves.
We’ve found novel bacteria. We have often extracted novel proteins. And we’ve even built some small companies to market some of the discoveries we’ve made to the research and medical community. So this habit of taking advantage of the unusual conditions around us and finding interesting experiments to do and value to provide has been a common thread in my life, also inspired by my parents.
Q. What was your impression of the International Space Station, and also of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo?
Window of the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo (Courtesy of NASA)
I was very fortunate to be able to fly just after the Kibo module had been attached. It’s fascinating to look at the entire space station because, of course, it was built over 10 years. There are some very old segments and some very new segments, and the Kibo module was the newest. It’s interesting to see how things have improved even just over those 10 years. For example, the older modules tend to be smaller, less well lit, and a lot noisier. The fans and other equipment make a great deal of noise. In contrast, the Kibo module and the module that’s up front, the Columbus module, are strikingly well organized and well lit. And silent. In fact, you can hardly hear even the sound of the air circulating through the module. So they’re extremely pleasant to be in.
But by far the most wonderful part of the Kibo module is the two windows. It has the two best windows on the space station. If you want to be impressed about the Earth that we live on and be the most inspired, the most inspiring place in the space station to sit and look is in the Kibo module.
Q. You have been successful as a game creator and programmer. There is a movement now to give experience in space to artists and other people in creative fields. What do you think about that?
Richard Garriott creating art work in space (Courtesy of NASA/Richard Garriott)
I believe that it is very important that more creative people get a chance to fly in space. It became clear to me after my flight that we really do need to get hundreds and thousands of people into space who are artists and poets, because I believe that what they will share with humanity about space will help improve the human condition, human sensitivity here on Earth.
One of my father’s Skylab crewmates was Alan Bean, who also walked on the Moon. When he heard about me scheduling my space flight, he wrote me a very kind letter, where he said, Richard, I know you have always wanted to go to space, so I’m very happy for you that you have finally made it happen. He said, I’m also very happy, though, that someone like you is getting a chance to go to space. Because he knew that I was a creative individual. And unlike most astronauts, who are hired because they are test pilots or scientists and not because they’re communicators, he said, it is also very valuable that you and people like you are now beginning to get the chance to travel in space. Because you will bring this experience back to Earth and share it with people on Earth in ways that many of the previous professional astronauts have not been able to. And I agree with that comment.
