The son of a U.S. astronaut blasted off Sunday from Kazakhstan as a tourist aboard a Russian rocket headed for the International Space Station.

British-born Richard Garriott, 47, joined U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov aboard the Soyez craft on the 18th space station expedition, RIA Novosti reported.

Garriott, who paid $30 million to the Russian space agency to become the sixth tourist to travel to the station, made his fortune in computer games such as Ultima Online, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Garriott's father, Owen, 77, flew aboard one of the last Apollo missions 35 years ago to Skylab, the United States' first orbiting laboratory. Richard Garriott's parents were on hand Sunday to watch his launch.

"Now I have this deeper sense of pride, of understanding the important steps that were accomplished by astronauts like him in what was actually a pioneering era, and knowing that I'm a pioneer too," said Garriott, who lives in a mock haunted house in Austin Texas.