Space tourist, new crew board station

Two Russian cosmonauts and billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi floated into the International Space Station today after a high-flying hook-up that capped a two-day trip from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Flying in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, Fyodor Yurchikhin, Oleg Kotov and Simonyi docked at the station at 3:11 p.m. as the two craft flew 220 miles above central Ukraine. The Soyuz moored itself at the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module.

"Contact and capture. Docking confirmed," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said from the Russian Mission Control Center outside Moscow. "A perfect arrival for new residents of the International Space Station and an American businessman."

Leak checks between the two craft then were carried out before hatches between the Soyuz and the station swung open and Kotov, Yurchikhin and Simonyi boarded the outpost around 4:30 p.m.

A contingent of well-wishers gathered in the Russian control center to watch the docking and hatch opening. American domestic diva Martha Stewart, who has been romantically linked to Simonyi, was there and beamed up her congratulations later today.

"I just want you to know that we all think that you are intrepid, a pioneer and above all, guess what? You are out of this world," Stewart said.

Simonyi clearly was having fun, and he also appeared well-adapted to the weightless space environment. He flipped himself upside-down and floated beside his crewmates during a space-to-ground link-up with family and friends at the control center.

Chief architech of Microsoft Word and Excel software, Simonyi paid the Russian Federal Space Agency an estimated $25 million under a commercial agreement for the two-week round trip to the station. He'll return to Earth on April 20 with current station skipper Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, who have been living and working on the station since September.

Yurchikhin and Kotov are setting out on a six-month tour of duty. They will be crewmates with NASA astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams, who was ferried to the station last December on shuttle Discovery and will return to Earth aboard Endeavour later this year.

IMAGE NOTE: Click to enlarge the image capture from the NASA TV broadcast of the welcome ceremony after the arrival at the station of the Expedition 15 crew and Charles Simonyi. In the front row, from left to right, are Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Charles Simonyi. In the back row, from left to right, are Michael Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin. Sunita "Suni" Williams is behind Simonyi but is blocked from view.