Space Adventures Ltd. announced today that game developer Richard Garriott, son of former astronaut Owen Garriott has begun preparations for a commercially active mission to the ISS. The space flight is planned for October 2008 and is intended to be the first in a series of missions.

The missions are intended to accommodate commercial activity aboard the ISS. "It has always been Space Adventures' goal to open the space frontier. Now, with Richard's flight, we have designed a series of missions devoted to increase commercial involvement in manned space missions," said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "It is a very rare occasion when so many commercial opportunities are available in one space mission. We encourage interested parties to contact us."

The first commercial research partner for the mission is a company called ExtremoZyme, Inc., which is a biotech company co-founded by Owen Garriott. "I am dedicating my spaceflight to science," said Mr. Garriott. "It is my goal to devote a significant amount of my time aboard the space station to science, engineering and educational projects. I understand the necessity for conducting research in extreme environments whether it is collecting microorganisms from deep sea hydrothermal vents to carrying out experiments in the continuous micro-gravity of Earth orbit." He continued, "We need to be adventurous in mind and stimulate our intellects to answer today's most daunting scientific questions and to invent tomorrow's technological marvels."

Via Richard in Space