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ex-Microsoft exec to be a space tourist

What would I do if I were filthy rich? Well, apart from doing the usual charity stuff, I'd have to do what ex-Microsoft exec and billionaire Charles Simonyi is planning to do: become a space tourist.

"Four decades after he fled Soviet-occupied Hungary to help create the U.S. personal-computer industry and key Microsoft products such as Word and Excel, Simonyi is to join two Russian cosmonauts flying a Soyuz TMA10 to the international space station on March 9.

...He's flying with Space Adventures, a Vienna, Va.-based company that flew the first paying passenger to space in 2001. It places clients aboard Russian space flights out of Kazakhstan."

Maybe a little to pioneering for my taste. I'm not sure I like the thought of riding a Russian / Kazakhstan combo with a Mr Borat taking charge of an Aeroflot-inspired spacecraft is asking for trouble...I think I'd wait for Mr Branson's offering instead.

Posted: Oct 27 2006, 06:04 PM by alexbarnett | with no comments
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