The Official Tabula Rasa channel on YouTube has posted a video of some imagery of the Soyuz flight carrying Tabula Rasa developer Richard Garriott to the International Space Station. That's him up there, in the lower left of the picture, flashing an "OK" sign. Aside from the terrible quality, the images are pretty cool, at least until the godawful techno music starts at the half-way mark. Also, what's up with the stuff about the exchange of the custom-made Soyuz seat liners? Do they read "I went into space and all I got was this lousy seat liner"?

On the way up, Garriott apparently flashed a card with some Tabula Rasa symbols. One of the dozens of people who play Tabula Rasa translated it, and revealed the following quote from a Russian scientist:

"Earth is the cradle of humanity but mankind will not be in the cradle forever."

I know a lot of folks are inclined to sneer at a guy who paid $30 million for a short trip into space, especially a guy who hasn't really managed to follow up on the awesome single player RPGs he used to make. But Garriott deserves credit for more than a self-aggrandizing publicity stunt. He's worked for many years to make space something more than the domain of government agencies. He deserves credit for doing things NASA has been unwilling or unable to do.

God speed, Mr. Garriott, and have a safe trip.

You can read our interview with Richard Garriott here.