| SPACE TRAVEL | SPACE DAILY | SPACE WAR | TERRA DAILY | MARS DAILY | SPACE MART | GPS DAILY | ENERGY DAILY |
 |
Moscow (AFP) Feb 20, 2007 The world's next space tourist, Hungarian-born US billionaire Charles Simonyi, will blast off on his journey to the International Space Station on April 7, Russia's space agency said Tuesday. Simonyi will become only the fifth space tourist in the world when he makes the trip the research facility aboard the Russian vessel Soyuz TMA-10. "Preparations for the launch have begun at the Baikonur space centre," the Roskosmos agency said in a statement Tuesday, confirming lift-off was planned for April 7. The Soyuz TMA-10 ship is in Baikonur, in the Kazakhstan province, where systems checks are underway, the statement said. Simonyi, a 58-year-old software developer who has been in training for his foray into space at Star City in Moscow since November, will be accompanied by two Russian cosmonauts, Fedor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov. Simonyi left Hungary for the United States at the age of 17, making his fortune working for Microsoft in the 1980s. He will become the fifth space tourist after American Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, American Gregory Olsen and, most recently, Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari.
Source: Agence France-Presse Email This Article
Related Links 
Seoul (AFP) Feb 18, 2007South Korea's first two potential astronauts will this month start a year of training in Russia before one of them heads to the International Space Station, officials said Sunday. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said the pair will leave on February 27 and begin training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center from March 7 after a week of medical check-ups.
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
