American
billionaire Charles Simonyi snagged his history-making second space tourist
trip to the International Space Station next year thanks to an elite club that
gives its members first dibs on private spaceflight seats.
Simonyi,
60, is paying
about $35 million to launch to the space station in spring 2009 aboard a
Russian Soyuz spacecraft on a spaceflight that will come two years after his
first $25 million flight. He's flying again under a deal between Russia's
Federal Space Agency and the Vienna, Va.-based firm Space Adventures.
It was
through Space Adventures' Orbital Missions Explorers Circle program that
Simonyi nabbed his second
trip to space. The elite six-person club requires a $5 million deposit and
gives its members first pick at new space tourist seats as they become
available, though it does depend on the order in which they signed up, Space
Adventures officials told SPACE.com.
Simonyi said
he was second in line after Google
co-founder Sergey Brin, who announced his intention to fly in space in June
but passed on the open seat next spring.
"I'm very
thankful for this opportunity that Space Adventures has presented to me for the
spring 2009 seat," Simonyi told reporters in a Monday teleconference, adding
that he joined the Explorers Circle earlier this summer. "There were others who
were interested, but I was able to secure it through this circle."
Space
Adventures is the only firm currently offering tickets to orbit and the
International Space Station. Among other space-themed thrills, the company offers
orbital spaceflights aboard Russian spacecraft with the option for a spacewalk
for about $15 million. To date, no private space tourists have performed a
spacewalk since they became available in 2006 and Simonyi doesn't plan to
pursue one.
"I decided
against doing a spacewalk," Simonyi said, adding that the physical demands and
extensive training time required made it infeasible. "I don't think I have the
time and frankly, I'm not enough of an athlete to undertake that."
Simonyi
said he will watch firsthand as Space Adventure's next ticket holder, American
computer game developer Richard Garriott, launches into orbit on Oct. 12 at
3:03 a.m. EDT (0703 GMT) aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft from the
Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. That particular
Soyuz spacecraft, Simonyi added, will be his trip home next year.
"I'm
looking forward to see the crew that I'm coming down with and a launch is
always an exciting event," Simonyi said. "It's quite a bit different than looking
at it from the inside and I think that will be an interesting comparison."
A return
to orbit
Simonyi
last flew to the space station in April 2007 on a record-setting 13-day
spaceflight that made him the fifth person ever to pay for a ticket to the
orbiting laboratory.
He
performed a series of experiments while chronicling
his experience via video, audio and text messages on his Web site
charlesinspace.com, and expects to do the same for his second spaceflight.
Reaching out to the public to support interest in science education and space
exploration are vital, he added.
"The
experience of spaceflight is so unique and so amazing," Simonyi said. "I really
want to be able to absorb it and experience it at a different level that only a
second experience would allow."
A native of
Hungary, Simonyi is a former Microsoft software developer and co-founder of
Intentional Software Corp. He is an avid pilot and said before his first
spaceflight that reaching space was a lifelong dream. When he was 13 years old,
he represented Hungary as a Junior Astronaut during a trip to Moscow.
"I am
ecstatic that Dr. Simonyi would choose to fly again and become a repeat
customer," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive of Space
Adventures, told reporters.
After this
month's flight by Garriott and Simonyi's launch next year, Space Adventures is
planning to launch two private spaceflyers into orbit in 2011 in what will be
the first completely privately funded Soyuz mission to the space station.
Meanwhile, the
firm will turn its attention to Garriott's launch on Sunday. He will blast off alongside
two professional astronauts to replace station crewmembers currently in space.
Garriott,
the son of retired NASA astronaut Owen Garriot, will be the first
second-generation American spaceflyer when he blasts off and has a packed slate
of science experiments, observations and education events on tap for his
mission.
He will
return to Earth on Oct. 24 (EDT) with returning Russian cosmonauts Sergei
Volkov - the world's first second generation spaceflyer - and Oleg Kononenko. Volkov,
the station's commander, and flight engineer Kononenko are completing a
six-month mission to the station.
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