Russian Rocket Carries Space Tourist
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — With the shuttle Discovery safely away from the International Space Station, a Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying two fresh crew members and a wealthy space tourist.
Charles Simonyi, a software developer, is making his second paid visit to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket, which blasted off on Thursday.
The Russian Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft blasted off from site 254, the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age.
Under an overcast sky, the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft roared to life with a burst of flame and smoke at 7:49 a.m. Eastern time and smoothly climbed away from site 254, the same launch pad used by Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the space age.
On board were Expedition 19 commander Gennady Padalka, a Russian air force colonel, U.S. flight engineer Michael Barratt, a physician- astronaut, and Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian-born software developer making his second paid visit to the space station.
Television views from inside the cramped capsule showed all three men looking calm and relaxed as their rocket accelerated toward space, Padalka in the center seat and Barratt to his left monitoring cockpit displays.
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