The
International Space Station (ISS) is both cozy and complicated according to American
billionaire Charles Simonyi, who paying more than $20 million for a trek to the
orbital outpost.
Now in his
sixth day in space, Simonyi
described orbital living as enjoyable yet challenging in a series of audio and
video broadcasts posted to his mission-dedicated Web site: www.charlesinspace.com.
“I think
the space station is just a fantastic place to live,” Simonyi, 58, said in an
April 12 video broadcast. “It’s cozy. It’s complicated. It has been lived in
for quite a while.”
The
Hungary-born Simonyi, a former Microsoft software developer and co-founder of
the firm Intentional Software Corp., is paying between $20 million and $25
million for 13 days in space, 11 of them aboard the ISS, under an agreement
between Russia’s Federal Space Agency and the Virginia-based firm Space
Adventures.
He launched
into orbit on April 7 aboard a Russian-built Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft with Expedition
15 cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov. The spaceflying trio docked
at the station onApril 9 and were greeted by the outpost’s three-astronaut
Expedition 14 crew.
“I think it
will be an unforgettable experience and I will have great new friends when I
get back,” Simonyi told students at Fairborn High School in Fairborn, Ohio Thursday during a HAM radio session.
The seasoned
professional astronauts aboard the station have developed their own tricks
to perform their daily tasks without losing objects in the weightless
environment of space, a skill Simonyi said he is trying to learn. A number of
items, including a writing pen, have escaped his grasp and led to some embarrassing
moments aboard the ISS, he added.
“The
crewmates weren’t very happy, of course, about finding a floating shirt or a
floating document or a floating pen,” Simonyi said in a Wednesday radio call to
Russian mission control, and displayed a tethered pencil and other supplies in
bags secured to his clothing via Velcro.
But
learning the intricacies of living in space is one of the joys of his 13-day
trek, Simonyi added.
“Even when
things are difficult, that’s in a sense fun because you’re learning about,” he
said.
Simonyi is
due to return to Earth April 20 with the station’s Expedition 14 commander
Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who are completing a
seven-month trip to the ISS. A third crewmate, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams,
is staying aboard to join the Expedition 15 mission.
Space
trek busy, and surprising
Simonyi
told Fairborn students that despite his lifelong interest in human spaceflight,
he did not believe he could make the trip himself until recently.
“My calling
was in computers,” Simonyi told the students, adding that he hopes the
spaceflight will help
encourage youth to pursue science and technology studies. “So this is a new
thing for me.”
With a full
schedule of science experiments and other activities, Simonyi’s slate has been
full for much of his time in orbit.
“I’ve been
up five days and I have no free time yet,” he said to a Fairborn student who
asked how he spent is off time in orbit. “I’ve been taking notes and looking at
the Earth, but later on I might be reading and listening to music.”
Editors for
Simonyi’s mission Web site reported that the installation of computer hard
drives and science experiments have kept the space tourist busy for much of the
week.
Simonyi is
participating in a lower back muscle study for the European Space Agency (ESA),
mapping the station’s radiation environment for the Federal Space Agency and the
Hungarian Space Office, and testing high-definition camera components for the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
In addition
to those studies, he will also spend some time today collecting samples of
microbes living aboard the space station as part of another ESA experiment, as
well as stamp and sign a series of personal effects for friends on Earth,
according to his mission flight plan.
Simonyi, answering one of the some 1,000 questions submitted to his Web site in recent days, described the views of planet Earth from space.
“The image
of Earth is incredibly blue and there is just lots of water. It’s not as round
as I thought it would be. Typically we’re looking straight down and we don’t
see much curvature, and it moves very fast,” Simonyi said, adding that it is
the stunning brightness of the Sun that he’s found most amazing. “It’s only in
the theaters that you can see fantastic light like that.”
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