Texas Explorer is About to Become the First Person to Accomplish an Amazing Feat

Richard Garriott, a Texas video game developer and explorer, will become only the second person ever to orbit the earth and reach the deepest point in the ocean.

Maggie Glynn with KXAN-TV reports that Garriott has already traveled to the International Space Station as a private astronaut back in 2008. If all goes as planned, he will head to the Mariana Trench, six miles under the Pacific Ocean, in a submarine and reach the Challenger Deep, which is at the southern part of the Mariana Trench.

Garriott has also traveled to both the North and South Poles and been to the Titanic.

Garriott says, “Even as a video game creator, I’ve also been an explorer. And like with the funds I’ve brought in through video games, I’ve invested throughout my career really in opening up new frontiers for exploration.”

Garriott thanks his parents for his natural curiosity and hopes to inspire other kids to explore as well. His father, Own Garriott, was an astronaut for NASA.

By the way, Kathy Sullivan became the first person to orbit space and make the deep dive as she recently completed the dive on June 7th. Richard Garriott will become the first person to orbit space, travel to both the North and South Poles, and do the deep dive once he completes his dive.

Leave it to a Texan to have to go that extra mile!