Space tourist braves dangerous Soyuz ship

Instead, during the Soyuz's last two journeys to Earth, the segments held together longer than they should have. If they'd held together much longer, the ship's heat shield might have burned through, with fatal results.

In July, Russian cosmonauts made a spacewalk to remove a suspect bolt on the Soyuz that will carry Garriott home. That probably solved any problem, Garriott says. And if not?

"So be it," he says.

Richard Garriott inherited not only his father's stoicism about risk but also his love of space. Growing up at the edge of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, living amidst the families of other astronauts, Richard took it for granted that he'd go to space.

An eye exam when he was young showed his vision was too poor for him to become an astronaut, but he would find another route to orbit. Rather than graduating college, he became wealthy as a pioneer of online games and invested in a space tourism company called Space Adventures. Years later, he paid the company to arrange his ride on the Soyuz and his stay on the station.

Once in space, Richard will pay tribute to his father's career. He'll try to photograph the same features on Earth that his father did, to allow comparisons of sites 30 years later. He'll do experiments on the growth of protein crystals in zero gravity, as his father did.

At Richard's request, Owen Garriott, retired from NASA, will act as the chief scientist for his son's flight. Not since Richard was a child have they spent so much time together.

Working with his father has been "a great joy for both me and my dad," Richard says. "It's also cool … that I've got one of the leading experts close at hand."

Owen Garriott plans to be at the launch pad in Kazakhstan to watch his son blast off. He hopes to be on one of the helicopters that flies to the Soyuz after it lands on the Kazakh plains. Unlike the parents of most space travelers, he isn't fearful of the risks his child has decided to run. He has run those risks himself.

"We understand the risks, and we believe they are tolerable," even with the Soyuz problem, he says. "And we're therefore still very enthused about proceeding."