On Oct. 12, 2008 Stephen Colbert and some of the greatest minds of Earth were launched into space from Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ...or at least, their digital DNA was.
An American game designer, Richard Garriott, paid $30 million to fulfill his childhood dream and see the stars close up. Garriott is reportedly spending a big chunk of his fortune on this 10-day excursion.
Garriott is also taking up the digital DNA sequences of some of the earth's greatest thinkers, musicians, athletes and computer gamers. The list ranges from famous physicist Stephen Hawking to comedian Stephen Colbert, and is part of an "immortality drive" which will contain a list of humanities greatest achievements and some personal messages from home. The "time capsule" will be stored in a space station in case of Earth's destruction.
Garriott, the sixth space tourist in the history of the program, is the first to follow in a parent's footsteps (his father, Alexander Garriott, was a cosmonaut). However, as millionaire Charles Simonyi plans to prove, space tourism doesn't have to be a "once in a lifetime" opportunity.
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