By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

NCsoft, the largest computer and video game company in Korea by revenue, said Monday that it will not sponsor the planned space trip of its U.S. game director Richard Garriott next year.

As The Korea Times reported on its September 18 issue, NCsoft confirmed that Garriott will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in the fall of 2008. But he will not get any money from the firm and will have to finance the project by himself, it said.

``It is a personal affair (of Garriott). We decided not to participate in the program,'' NCsoft's spokesperson Kim Ju-young said.

According to the announcement, Garriott will be riding a Russian rocket to the ISS in a tour organized by Space Adventures, a Virginia-based space tourism agency. The trip is similar to the trip that South Korea's first astronaut Ko San is preparing to take next spring. The round trip is believed to cost around $30 million.

If he does fly as planned, Garriott will be the first second-generation astronaut. He is a son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott.

Garriott and NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin have had a taste of space travel earlier this month. They took a zero gravity flight out of an airport in Texas.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr

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