Martha Stewart farewells Simonyi to space · 2007-04-07 13:56
U.S. lifestyle queen Martha Stewart flew to the Soviet-era Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday to wish good luck to her friend, space tourist Charles Simonyi who is due to blast off to orbit on Saturday, Reuters informed.
Simonyi, 58, a billionaire founding father of Microsoft, was undergoing last-minute checks ahead of the flight at the cosmodrome in Kazakhstan along with Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.
The three are due to lift off on Saturday at 11:31 p.m. aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 spaceship to the International Space Station.
“I am a tourist but I am also using this opportunity to help the station’s research,” Simonyi said.
After spending just over 12 days in orbit including 11 on the ISS, he will be the world’s fifth space tourist – and the first billionaire in space.
Martha Stewart had helped Simonyi select a menu for a dinner he plans to share with his ISS colleagues on Russia’s Cosmonauts Day on April 12.
“We are going to have a party. I am bringing lots of special food,” Simonyi said.
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