British Space Tourist Returns To Earth Aboard Russian Space Capsule

October 24, 2008 8:31 p.m. EST

Arkalyk, Kazakhstan (AHN) - A British-born space tourist is safely back on earth after traveling into space to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz space capsule.

Tourist Richard Garriott paid the Russian government $30 million for his space trip that included 10 days aboard the space station. He landed in the Soyuz TMA-12 capsule Friday at 0337GMT about 55 miles north of Arkalyk in north-central Kazakhstan.

Garriott has made millions of dollars as a computer game designer.

He said he wanted to make the trip to follow in the steps of his father, retired NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew on the second U.S. Skylab mission in 1973, which was a forerunner of today's International Space Station.