Whenever former space tourist Charles Simonyi misses the sensation of orbital flight, he doesn't have to travel farther than to his local museum to bring the memories rushing back.
And whenever he misses his father, he can open up the physics history book his father wrote in Hungarian, which was recently translated into English for publication in the United States.
"It was my home for a couple of days and it brings back very incredible memories," the Hungarian-American computer software billionaire said of the capsule, which he purchased after the flight.
Simonyi paid about $35 million to Russia's Federal Space Agency for the 13-day round trip. He was the fifth person to pay his way to space and the only one to go twice. Simonyi first flew to the space station aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 in April 2007.
Simonyi lives near Seattle, in Medina, Wash., when he is not on his world-traveling yacht, Skat. He donated $3 million toward the cost of the Museum of Flight's new space gallery. Simonyi told SPACE.com that the museum is "a wonderful facility and it has aircraft from all eras, from the very beginning up to Concorde and Air Force One and all kinds of flying machines.
"It's a fantastic family experience, and kids are always very enthusiastic and excited when they see things connected with flying in space." [Photos: The First Space Tourists]
Karolyi Simonyi published the first edition of "A Cultural History of Physics," written in Hungarian, in 1979. Now the book has been translated into English and has been published in the United States by CRC Press.
"It's an extraordinary book because it's written for everyone who is interested in culture either from the humanities side or from the science side," Simonyi said. "It's an incredible pleasure to be able to bring this jewel to the English-speaking world."
"He had a fantastic library and he was very well read in all the humanities, and he always professed that culture is an integral whole; the humanities and the sciences are indivisible and they should be understood together," the younger Simonyi said. "So he took advantage of his difficult predicament and he started on this extraordinary work. Now it's been published in five editions in Hungary and has had tremendous success."
"I think science, of course, is very important for everyone to understand — if not the details of science, the role of science in society and how science relates to the rest of our lives and the rest of our pursuits," Simonyi said. "And what's the best way to learn about science and the connection between the humanities and sciences than through history?"
"Essentially it’s a little bit like People magazine, where personalities are gossiping about each other," Simonyi said. "Sometimes, of course, they say nice things about each other, but sometimes they are needling or worse."
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