Former Microsoft exec signs up for tourist trip

A former Microsoft executive who helped launch the computer age has signed a deal to fly a tourist trip to the International Space Station.

Charles Simonyi will travel to the oribiting outpost in the spring of 2007. The deal was brokered by Space Adventures. Here an excerpt from the company's press release:

"Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today that Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., has signed a contract for a future orbital spaceflight. The company, which organized the spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS) for the world's first private space explorers Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen, disclosed that Dr. Simonyo has already completed preliminary training and medical examinations as part of the program's qualification process.

In conjunction with the (Russian) Federal Space Agency and the Rocket Space Corporation Energia, Space Adevntures continues its commitment to opening the final frontier for private citizens."

Earlier this year, Space Adventures announced that Daisuke Enomoto, a Japanese businessman, began cosmonaut training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia, for a planned trip to the ISS in September.