Commercial

Seiko

Seiko have developed a Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk watch, specifically for use in the harsh conditions of space during a spacewalk.  Richard will be taking the watch to the International Space Station, where he will be testing the watch in weightless environment. 

Richard's father, Owen Garriott, made two space flights, aboard Skylab in 1973 and aboard STS-9/Spacelab-1 in 1983. In total, Owen spent 70 days in space and he carried SEIKO watches on both of these flights and wore one continuously during his Spacelab mission.

The SEIKO Spring Drive Spacewalk has been custom designed and built with a spacewalk in mind. The challenge of making a watch that could operate not only during a spaceflight but also outside on a spacewalk is a daunting one, and is precisely the kind of challenge that brings out the best in SEIKO's engineers. Their mission was to build a watch that was light, air-tight, strong, easy to read and easy to use, as well as safe and accurate.

Attributes of the watch include:

•  The air-tight case
• The lightness of High-intensity titanium
• The optimum balance of lightness and wide dial-opening
• The most readable dial.
• Maximum ease of use

Read more at the Seiko Spacewalk website

DHL

Richard will be conducting a physics experiment while on the ISS as part of an initiative sponsored by DHL. The experiment has been designed as an educational contest taking place at the DHL Innovation Center in Bonn, Germany. While onboard the space station, Richard will conduct the experiment and capture the results on video and in photographs. The footage and images will then be used on the website of the DHL InnovationCenter to detail the activity. The students, whose test results are most consistent with the actual outcome of the experiment, will receive awards.

“I am very excited to participate in DHL’s educational programming. It’s vital for our future that kids today are interested in and thrilled about lessons from the laws of physics,” said Richard. “Of course we’re delighted that Richard Garriott has chosen to integrate this DHL initiative into the October mission,” said Dr. Andrej Busch, Member of the Divisional Board DHL Parcel Germany. “Education has always been a key to innovation at DHL and I think being part of this space initiative represents our ‘look to the future’ quite well.”