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Press Materials Click here for the following press materials: Press Release B-Roll video  Richard Photos Mission Photography List Print PSA Richard talks about The Conservancy's work. Go Deeper The Nature Conservancy of Texas Working with partners, we have conserved more than 750,000 acres of land and water throughout the state. Richard in Space Read more about Richard on his mission homepage.

Update Oct. 16: Today, Richard begins his Earth photography mission to raise awareness for conservation. Listen to Richard's audio blog from space  Track Richard's orbit

 

 

 

 

Some ancient cultures revered the night sky, believing their ancestors to be the sparkling lights painted across the firmament. As a young boy, legendary video game developer and Nature Conservancy member Richard Garriott looked to the heavens and saw something else entirely — the zero-gravity office where his father, NASA scientist-astronaut Owen Garriott, plied his trade. 

When Richard launches into orbit on October 12 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and travels to the International Space Station, he will be fulfilling a childhood dream by following his father’s illustrious path. In the process, he will become the first ever second-generation American space traveler. Through this historic mission, Richard will make an important contribution to the world's awareness of conservation science.

Following His Father’s Footsteps

While aboard the International Space Station, Richard will be amassing a collection of photographs using coordinates supplied by Nature Conservancy scientists. As a crew member of the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the elder Garriott greatly contributed to the photographic record of Earth as seen from space. Today, those images serve as a part of conservation baseline record. They provide a macro view of the Earth’s natural features, the planet’s forests, coastlines, deserts and illustrate how human interaction with nature made our world look 30 years ago. Upon Richard’s return in late october, the new images will be analyzed and compared to older photos to show how conservation — and the urgent need for more — shapes our planet.

Although the target sites are subject to atmospheric cover and orbit timing, the finished photos will comprise some of Earth’s most beautiful — and imperiled — places, including major river systems in North America, Asia and South America and landscapes ranging from the Coral Triangle in Indonesia to the Davis Mountains of Far West Texas.

England Born, Texas Bred

Born in Cambria, England in 1961, Richard has called Texas home for most of his life. Raised primarily in Nassau Bay on the outskirts of Houston, Richard first moved to his adopted hometown of Austin as an undergraduate at the University of Texas. Having begun programming computer games for his friends while still in high school, Richard created his first professionally published game in 1980. Today, Richard is rightly considered a giant in the field of video games.

Having explored Antarctica’s icy tundra in search of meteorites, tracked mountain gorillas in the lush jungles of Rwanda and journeyed to the depths of the ocean to study bacteria found in hydrothermal vents, Richard now turns his exploratory spirit and scientific mind to the greatest adventure of his life.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Will VanOverbeek (Richard Garriot with a Sputnik satellite); Video © TNC; Rotating Photos © Space Adventures, Ltd. (Richard crossing the tundra); © NASA (Richard's father, Owen Garriott); © Harold E. Malde (Davis Mountains); © NASA (Earth); Still photographs in video courtesy NASA and Space Adventures, Inc.; Video © TNC.