Charles Simonyi, 58, a Hungarian-born billionaire software engineer, is ready for space travel with his new Russian-built Sokol spacesuit. A necessary item for his planned April 7, 2007 launch toward the international space station, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Simonyi left Hungary at 17, roughly a decade after the Soviet Union launched the Space Age by sending Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, into orbit. He came to the United States to study engineering and computer science, and went on to help develop two of the world’s most popular software applications, Microsoft Corp.’s Word and Excel.
He said:
I have to say that my hopes are more than fulfilled, both in terms of the training and in terms of what I can communicate
He has paid more than $20 million for the trip with Russian Federal Space Agency by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. He will become the fifth paying visitor to the ISS when he launches aboard a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft with two professional cosmonauts , part of the station’s Expedition 15 crew on 10-day spaceflight to the orbital laboratory.
Space Adventures sure is giving some heavy competition to Virgin Galactic in its run for space travel.
Source: MSNBC
