Source: Xinhua
04-08-2009 21:47
Special Report: Tech MaxMOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- A Russian manned spacecraft has departed from the International Space Station (ISS), the Mission Control Center outside Moscow said Wednesday.
The Soyuz TMA-13 spaceship, with two astronauts and one space tourist aboard, departed from the ISS at 07:55 Moscow time (0355 GMT) on Wednesday, said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the mission control.
The spaceship is expected to land some three hours later at the site northeast of Kazakh city Dzhezkazgan and the crew will bring the results of experiments back to the Earth, including a bioreactor with bacteria grown in orbit, he said.
The capsule will bring back the Hungarian-born U.S. businessman Charles Simonyi, who has spent over 11 days on the ISS, and two astronauts -- U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov.
Simonyi, one of the brains behind Bill Gates' Microsoft, is the first twice self-funded space traveler. The 60-year-old billionaire paid his first visit to space in 2007, which reportedly cost him 25 million U.S. dollars. The second trip cost him about 35 million dollars.
A Soyuz TMA-14 spaceship carrying Simonyi and the two astronauts blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on March 26 and docked with the ISS on March 28.
The crew have postponed their landing for one day due to the severe floods at the originally planned landing site in Kazakhstan, local media reported.
Besides Simonyi, U.S. businessman Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, U.S. millionaire Gregory Olsen, Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari and U.S. computer game developer Richard Garriott are the five tourists who have paid to visit space.
-- Click for more news in Tech Max >>
Editor:Yang Jie
