Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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April 8, 2007

Fifth 'Space Tourist' Begins Flight to International Space Station
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=16FAC82:A6F02AD83191E1609CCE70F991DF52B59574F7DCC14957C0 Russian spacecraft
with American space tourist and a two-man Russian replacement crew to
rendezvous Monday with ISS



Soyuz TMA-10, 07 Apr 2007" hspace=2
src="/english/images/ap_us_charles_simonyi_russian_cosmonauts_210_eng_07Apr07.jpg"
width=182 vspace=2 border=0>

Russian cosmonauts from top Fyodor Yurchikhin, Space tourist U.S.
billionaire Charles Simonyi, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov as they wave
just before the launch of the Soyuz TMA-10, 07 Apr 2007A Russian
spacecraft carrying an American space tourist, and a two-man Russian
replacement crew has reached orbit, ahead of a rendezvous with the
International Space Station.

The Soyuz rocket lifted off late Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan. It is scheduled to dock with the space station Monday.

Hungarian-born American billionaire Charles Simonyi is the fifth
person to buy a ride to the space station. While aboard the orbiter,
he will perform experiments for the European and Japanese space
agencies.

Simonyi is due to return to Earth April 20, along with two departing
crew members, commander Michael Lopez-Alegria of the United States and
Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have been on the space
station since September.

The two new Russian crew members, new commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and
flight engineer Oleg Kotov, will remain aboard the space station along
with a remaining American crew member, flight engineer Sunita
Williams, until late this year.

Simonyi paid more than $20 million for his trip to the International
Space Station, and trained for his mission in Russia. He helped found
computer software giant Microsoft before starting his own software
company.

The four previous people to pay Russia millions of dollars for a trip
to the space station are Americans Dennis Tito (2001) and Greg Olsen
(2005), South African Mark Shuttleworth (2002), and the first woman
space tourist, Anousheh Ansari of the United States (2006).

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.


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