US business tycoon Richard Garriott blasted off into space aboard a Russian rocket today. Garriott, a video game developer from Texas, paid $35 million to fly into space alongside US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov.
The Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppes as planned just after 1pm local time.
His take-off was watched by his father, a Nasa astronaut who went into space at the height of the Cold War.
After 10 days in space Garriott will return to Earth with the ISS's old crew aboard a Soyuz re-entry vehicle - a three-man capsule which has malfunctioned on its last two flights.
In April, a Soyuz capsule landed 420km (260 miles) off course after explosive bolts failed to detonate before re-entry, sending the craft into a steep descent.
Last year, a Soyuz capsule carrying Malaysia's first astronaut also made a so-called "ballistic" landing, similarly blamed on faulty bolts.
Reuters