The Russian Space Agency confirmed today its plans for the 18^th International Space Station expedition. It also presented the composition of the mission’s main crew which will include U.S. astronaut Commander Mike Fincke, Russian astronaut Flight Engineer Yuri Lonchakov, and U.S. space tourist Richard Garriott.

All three managed to pass the preflight tests and medical checkups and are ready for the takeoff scheduled for October 12 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. They will be boarding a Soyuz TMA-12 craft.   

Richard Garriott, an American millionaire, paid $30 million for the trip and will be the 6^th space tourist to reach the ISS. There were some problems due to the fact that he has a poor eyesight, but managed to find a way of coping with it. "For me, growing up with a father who was an astronaut and neighbors who were all either astronauts or NASA engineers, that dream sunk in more deeply," he said, referring to his father, Owen Garriott, a two-time space traveler. Garriott Senior is now 77 years old and he visited the Skylab space station in 1973.

The first man to take such a trip for fun was Dennis Tito, an American businessman and former NASA scientist, who visited the ISS back in 2001. One year later, South African computer millionaire Mark Shuttleworth also visited the station. The third was U.S. entrepreneur and scientist Gregory Olsen in 2005. In 2006 was the turn for the first female tourist, Anousheh Ansari and in 2007 Charles Simonyi also completed the trip.