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Software billionaire off to space station

Charles Simonyi is taking a meal selected by friend Martha Stewart for crew members.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 8, 2007

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - A Russian rocket carrying the American billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word roared into the night skies over Kazakhstan on Saturday, sending Charles Simonyi and two astronauts soaring into orbit on a two-day journey to the international space station.

The Soyuz TMA-10 capsule lifted off at 11:31 p.m. local time, casting an orange glow over the Baikonur cosmodrome and dozens of officials and well-wishers watching from about a mile away. It was scheduled to rendezvous with the station Monday.

Among those bidding farewell was Simonyi's friend Martha Stewart who watched the launch from a location separate from other spectators.

Stewart's presence in Baikonur inspired wide speculation that she and Simonyi - friends for about a decade - were planning to announce their engagement.

Inside the capsule, Simonyi and astronauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov grinned for the onboard camera, gave the thumbsup sign and batted at a toy black cat hanging from rope - a token of good luck chosen by Kotov and named after his two children.

Simonyi, a 58-year-old native of Hungary, paid $25-million for the 13-day trip, the fifth such paying "space tourist," or "space flight participant," as officials prefer to call them.

"I think for Charles it is a dream come true," said Victoria Scott, a friend who watched the liftoff as others drank champagne toasts and chanted, "Charles! Charles!"

In a posting on the blog he intends to maintain in orbit (www.charlesinspace.com), Simonyi said he spent his final day getting a haircut and a therapeutic massage and watched a traditional showing of a classic Soviet-era war film.

There was no mention of Stewart on the blog, but Simonyi did make reference to one of the lesser-known, last-minute traditions for Russian astronauts heading into space - urinating on the tire of the bus transporting them to the launchpad.

Simonyi will treat the crews to a gourmet meal chosen by Stewart, in honor of Cosmonauts' Day, the Russian day commemorating Yuri Gagarin's historic 1961 flight into space.

Simonyi is to return to Earth on April 20 along with Russian Mikhail Tyurin and Americans Miguel Lopez-Alegria.

[Last modified April 8, 2007, 01:12:58]