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Martha Stewart Picks Space Pal's Menu
Born in Hungary, Simonyi began programming on a bulky Soviet computer called Ural-2 as a teenager. He went to Denmark to work as a programmer and moved to the United States in 1968, where he worked at Microsoft Corp. developing Microsoft Word and Excel and eventually founded his own software company.
Simonyi, who lives in the Seattle area, said at the space travelers' final news conference that his friend Microsoft chairman Bill Gates was excited about the adventure.
  Martha Stewart poses with Charles Simonyi, former chief architect of Microsoft, before the Russian National Orchestra's 15th Anniversary Gala, on March 7, 2006 in New York. Stewart, the apostle of the cozy and the quaint, came Friday, April 6,2007, to the bleak space town of Baikonur in Kazakhstan to watch Simonyi, her billionaire friend, blast off for the international space station.(AP Photo/Stephen Chernin) (Stephen Chernin - AP) PHOTOS |
"I am in contact with Bill and he is very happy that I am doing this," Simonyi said.
Simonyi said he had spoken with the two most recent space tourists, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari, "and they gave me a lot of advice not to move my head and not to drink too much before the launch."
While at the space station, Simonyi will be conducting experiments that include measuring radiation levels and studying biological organisms. He will also be writing a blog that he hopes will inspire others, especially children, to get interested in space exploration.
"There is an element of hope. We don't quite know what we are going to find, but we have to go and see and find it," Simonyi said.
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On the Net:
Simonyi's blog: http:/
