Our Space is the place to explore unique footage of the experience of Space flight and download a range of Space-related videos, images, audio and resources to use in lessons, projects and 'mashups'. This section tells you a bit more about this and who is behind the project.

Richard Garriott and his mission background

Who is Richard Garriott? – Born on 4th July 1961 in Cambridge, England, computer game visionary Richard Garriott (a.k.a Lord British) is not just a millionaire adventurer and astronaut but he is also a wonderful story teller. He loves to share his passion for space and the fun and learning that he experienced during his visit to the International Space Station in October 2008. Richard’s mission inspired hundreds to enter the Metro newspaper's 'Richard in Space' competition and British students designed great experiments and enterprise ideas. Richard now has a new challenge for you: tell your space story.

Richard's mission to the International Space Station (ISS for short) took place in October 2008. You can check out his website www.richardinspace.com for a day by day account of his mission. You can also see the press releases that were issued during his visit and the Metro articles about him on our Assets and Resources page.

While in space, following family tradition set by his father (Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott), Richard repeated some of his father’s observations of Earth a generation earlier and also undertook a series of scientific, commercial and educational projects while on the ISS.

Richard’s Space Firsts

Richard created a number of firsts during his mission:

  • Richard was the first second generation American astronaut. Richard's father Owen was an astronaut on Skylab and during the Shuttle programme and is noted for his efforts in the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

  • Richard was the first British-born private space participant. Richard was a client of Space Adventures, a company he has helped to build to make commercial space flight a reality.

  • Richard took the first newspaper into Space - a copy of the British-based Metro newspaper. The Space Station Edition of The Metro contained experiments suggested by young people in the Richard in Space competition. Eager for answers Richard carried out these experiments and filmed the fascinating result, and these personal videos are here on the Our Space website

  • Richard was the first Astronaut to have flown having had laser surgery to correct his vision.

  • Richard is the first astronaut to shoot a sci fi movie in space.

  • Richard indulged a life long passion for magic by creating the first magic show in space.

  • Richard was the first man to have a pony tail in space.

Oh and he also managed to pull off some practical jokes too, but that’s another story.

If you were to go to space, what would you want to be the first to do? What would your space adventure look like? What stories would you tell?

You can also find out more about Richard at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott.

You can also read an interesting article about Richard's own moon rover here: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/819463-space-tourist-i-own-part-of-the-moon.

Video Messages from Richard

Below and elsewhere on the website, you can find short video messages from Richard about science, magic and making things happen. Play one now!

Video message - Why Science and Maths are important

Video message - Taking opportunities

Video message - Science and Magic