有钱人玩得就是刺激 Microsoft billionaire Simonyi blasts off in Russian rocket

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Microsoft billionaire Simonyi blasts off in Russian rocket
By Maria Danilova

The Associated Press


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

The Soyuz TMA-10 capsule is scheduled to rendezvous with the station Monday.

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

Inside the capsule, Simonyi and cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov grinned for the onboard camera, gave the thumbs-up sign and batted at a toy black cat hanging from rope, a token of good luck chosen by Kotov.

Simonyi, 58, a native of Hungary who lives in Medina, 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, of Seattle, his personal trainer, who watched the liftoff as others drank champagne toasts and chanted \"Charles! Charles!\"

On the blog he intends to maintain while in orbit, 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.

Three days after arriving at the station and greeting its current occupants — Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronauts Miguel Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams — Simonyi will treat the crews to a gourmet meal, chosen by Stewart.

The menu includes quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck-breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit and semolina cake.

Simonyi emigrated to the United States in 1968 and eventually worked at Microsoft, helping to develop Word and Microsoft Excel before founding his own company.

While at the space station, Simonyi will conduct experiments. He plans to speak with students from Redmond High School and two other U.S. schools via ham radio. He is to return to Earth on April 20.

Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.

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