According to a Russian news agency former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi will fly to the ISS next spring. RIA Novosti reports that the next Soyuz mission to the ISS has been delayed from March to April 2007 so that the landing avoids the spring floods on the steppes of Kazakhstan. That mission will include Simonyi, the report mentions in passing. Space Adventures has not previously announced a date for Simonyi’s flight; an August press release announcing that he had passed a medical review reported only that “More details regarding Dr. Simonyi’s scheduled launch date, commencement of training and specific mission objectives will be announced in the coming months.” This launch date make sense, since it may be the last flight opportunity for a commercial passenger on a Soyuz for some time: the fall 2007 flight will likely carry a Malaysian guest cosmonaut under an agreement between the Russian and Malaysian governments, while a South Korean is expected to fly on a spring 2008 Soyuz mission under a similar intergovernmental agreement.
[…] The press release isn’t on the Space Adventures web site, but the company sent out a notice Thursday that the company will be holding a press conference in Seattle next Thursday, the 26th, to formally announce that Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft executive, will be the next orbital space tourist. According the the release, the press conference will discuss “Details on why the software developer and architect of Microsoft Word and Excel is going to space, his launch date and planned activities while at the International Space Station.” Simonyi will be at the press conference at the Museum of Flight, along with Space Adventures’ Eric Anderson and museum president Bonnie Dunbar (a former astronaut). As noted here earlier this week, Russian officials have already said that Simonyi will fly to the ISS on the next Soyuz taxi flight in April 2007. […]