Martha Stewart Arrives at Cosmodrome for Space Tourist's Launch

Martha Stewart poses with Charles Simonyi, former chief architect of Microsoft, before the Russian National Orchestra's 15th Anniversary Gala, on March 7, 2006 in New York. Stewart, the apostle of the cozy and the quaint, came Friday, April 6,2007, to the bleak space town of Baikonur in Kazakhstan to watch Simonyi, her billionaire friend, blast off for the international space station. CREDIT: AP Photo/Stephen Chernin.

Stewart came Friday to the bleak space town of Baikonur to say goodbye to Charles Simonyi, a software engineer and developer of Microsoft Word who paid between $20 million and $25 million for a 13-day trip to the space station.

Simonyi, one of the 400 richest Americans according to Forbes Magazine, is to lift off Saturday aboard a Soyuz space capsule with two Russian cosmonauts.

Stewart and Simonyi have been friends for about a decade, and some celebrity-gossip publications have suggested they're romantically linked.

Samantha Schabel, a spokeswoman for Stewart, declined to elaborate on the relationship, saying only, "They're best friends.''

The founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., a multimedia empire dedicated to stylish living, Stewart ranks third on Forbes.com's list of "The 20 Richest Women in Entertainment,'' with assets of $638 million. In March 2005, she completed a five-month prison term for lying to federal investigators about a stock sale.

After arriving at the gritty spaceport set in the seemingly endless Kazakh steppes, she shared a private moment with Simonyi, 58, through a plate glass window protecting him and his crewmates from germs.

"He's in excellent spirits,'' Stewart, 65, told The Associated Press after their tete-a-tete. "He's very fit and very well-trained.''

Stewart's arrival in Baikonur inspired wide speculation the two would announce their engagement before liftoff. A spokeswoman for Space Adventures, the company that arranged Simonyi's trip, declined to comment on her visit, other than to say she would watch the launch.

Baikonur, a collection of worn concrete buildings, would seem extremely low on Stewart's list for an ideal place to announce her betrothal. But she's already made an attempt at sprucing up the space trip.

Stewart chose the menu for a gourmet meal that Simonyi will be taking to the space station as a treat for his comrades in space. They plan a celebratory feast for April 12, which Russia observes as Cosmonauts' Day.

The menu includes quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers, shredded chicken parmentier, apple fondant pieces, rice pudding with candied fruit, and semolina cake with dried apricots. It was to be prepared by celebrity chef Alain Ducasse's consulting and training center, ADF, according to Space Adventures.

Born in Hungary, Simonyi began programming on a bulky Soviet computer called Ural-2 as a teenager. He went to Denmark to work as a programmer and moved to the United States in 1968, where he worked at Microsoft Corp. developing Microsoft Word and Excel and eventually founded his own software company.

Simonyi, who lives in the Seattle area, said at the space travelers' final news conference that his friend Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was excited about the adventure.

"I am in contact with Bill and he is very happy that I am doing this,'' Simonyi said.

Simonyi said he had spoken with the two most recent space tourists, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari, "and they gave me a lot of advice not to move my head and not to drink too much before the launch.''

While at the space station, Simonyi will be conducting experiments that include measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms. He will also be writing a blog that he hopes will inspire others, especially children, to get interested in space exploration.

"There is an element of hope. We don't quite know what we are going to find, but we have to go and see and find it,'' Simonyi said.

• IMAGES: Space Tourist, Expedition 15 Crew Train for Launch
• VIDEO: Space Tourist Charles Simonyi in Zero G!
• Complete International Space Station Mission Coverage