When he’s not giving interviews about his “Ultimate RPG” to every gaming industry publication imaginable, Richard Garriott does spend a lot of his time supporting private space travel initiatives, and keeping pace with the whole aerospace industry and its history. As such, it’s no surprise that he — among many other notable people — turned up at a dedication ceremony at the Seattle Museum of Flight:

Charles Simonyi was honored today at the Seattle Museum of Flight. The museum gallery’s name was unveiled, the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery. Hungarian-born Simonyi was a key architect of Microsoft Word and Excel, and founder of Intentional Software who flew twice as a “space tourist” to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz. He spent a total of 30 days in space. He donated $3 million to the gallery.

The gallery will receive the Space Shuttle mockup simulator in late spring, early summer. We ran a recent article about the Space Shuttle simulator here. This event was timed to overlap with tomorrow’s “Future Forum hosted by the museum and NASA.

The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences is a $75 million foundation he established in 2003 and has benefitted the Seattle Symphony, Public Library, in addition to the Museum of Flight.

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Richard Garroitt

Richard Garriott is the son of scientist Owen K. Garriott, an astronaut who flew with Skylab 3 and Space Shuttle mission STS-9.

“I actually launched on the TMA-13 Soyuz, the vehicle you will have here in the museum, the same one Charles returned to the Earth in,” said Garriott. “I’m from Austin, Texas. I just got married. My wife lives in New York. And I do business in Seattle. So it is a lot of back and forth. How I funded my own journey into space is computer games. I am one of the first developers of computer games. I am one of the largest shareholders of Space Adventures (the space tourism company).” His advise to others? “Have a dream and pursue it doggedly,” he said.

Austin…Seattle…New York. It’s a wonder the man spends any time outside of an airplane!