Space tourists begins journey home

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21 ... 02,00.html

 

SPACE tourist Charles Simonyi has left for Earth after a two-week stay at the orbiting International Space Station.Simonyi, a US billionaire and the world's fifth space tourist, left aboard a Russian Soyuz craft with cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria.

 

The Soyuz pulled away slowly from the $100 billion space laboratory, 350km above Earth, at 0912 GMT.

 

Simonyi paid $25 million for the trip and had been at the station since April 9.

 

He was due to land in the Kazakh steppe in Central Asia at 1231 GMT.

 

“I've enjoyed working here and working with the excellent crew and commanders and I'm looking forward to the return flight but it's a bitter-sweet moment for all of us,†Hungarian-born Simonyi said during a farewell ceremony aboard the station.

 

“We are very sad leaving the station but at the same time we are looking forward to continuing our work on Earth.â€

 

The former Microsoft software guru, 58, led the teams that developed the Word and Excel applications.

 

Controllers at Mission Control outside Moscow supervised the departure, talking the crew through the undocking process while watching them work on a live television feed from space.

 

All six crew members and Simonyi hugged and shook hands before the departing three climbed into the Soyuz.

 

One of the remaining crew, Oleg Kotov, then took a picture of them inside the capsule and rang a golden-coloured bell when the undocking began.

 

The homecoming was originally scheduled for Friday but boggy ground meant the date as well as the location had to be changed, effectively giving Simonyi a free extra day in space.

 

Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria have spent seven months in orbit.

 

Remaining on the station are Russian cosmonauts Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin, who flew to the outpost with Simonyi, and US astronaut Sunita Williams who arrived at the station in December.