Source: Xinhua

03-27-2009 11:07

MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A Russian spaceship with two astronauts and one space tourist aboard blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Thursday, local media reported.

U.S. entrepreneur Charles Simonyi waves to his wife after putting on his space suit at Baikonur Cosmodrome March 26, 2009. Simonyi will roar off into space aboard a Russian rocket on Thursday to make history as the first tourist to make the  odyssey twice. He will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) with Russia's cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and U.S. astronaut Michael Barratt. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft lifted off at 14:49 Moscow time (1149 GMT) and is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) at 16:14 Moscow time (1314 GMT) on Saturday.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, the crew of the 19th ISS expedition, will work at the ISS for six months.

Hungarian-born U.S. businessman Charles Simonyi will spend some 12 days on the ISS and return to the Earth with the crew of the 18th mission.

The 60-year-old billionaire's second trip into space cost him around 35 million U.S. dollars, up from the 25 million dollars he paid for his 2007 visit.

Padalka and Barratt, along with astronauts from Japan, Canada and Europe, will double the space station's permanent crew to six by the end of May.

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