Two Russian cosmonauts and a space flight participant launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 21:31 Moscow time (17:31 GMT) Saturday for a two-day flight to the International Space Station. Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit and its antennas and solar arrays deployed. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station at a little after 20:00 GMT Monday, April 9.. Once they arrive at the station, Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 15 commander, and Oleg Kotov, Expedition 15 flight engineer, and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, a U.S. businessman, will be greeted by the stations current crew, Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams. Simonyi, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency, will return to Earth on April 20 with Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin, who have been aboard the station since September 2006. Flight Engineer Suni Williams, who has served as an Expedition 14 crew member since December, will remain on the station joining the Expedition 15 crew. She is scheduled to return home aboard space shuttle Endeavour this summer.
Source NASA
A US software engineer has become the fifth space tourist after blasting off on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Billionaire Charles Simonyi, 58, who led development of Microsoft's Word, lifted off from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan at 1731 GMT. The $20m ride will make him the 450th person to enter orbit and by his own admission "the first nerd in space". American businesswoman and lifestyle guru, Martha Stewart, was there to wave her friend off on the 12-day trip.