Ready For Blast Off: Billionaire Charles Simonyi On What To Pack For Space Travel

Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft will take tourists to the International Space Station from U.S. soil as early as 2017.

Looking for a vacation that costs up to $50 million, has no showers and is likely to make you sick? Its no luxury resort, but traveling to outer space can be the ultimate adventure for thrill-seekers with lots of disposable income. Its as exclusive as it gets fewer than 550 people have ever been, only eight of them paying tourists. But the journey will get more accessible in the next few years, as a handful of companies compete to launch the first commercial space flights.

Until now, the only way to buy a trip to the stars has been through Space Adventures, a Virginia-based company that has facilitated trips to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz rockets since 2001. Clients have included billionaire Cirque du Soleil cofounder Guy Laliberte, British-American game designer Richard Garriott and South-African software millionaire Mark Shuttleworth.

Charles Simonyi, the Hungarian-born billionaire behind the creation of Microsoft Word and Excel, is the only tourist whos gone twice. He flew to the ISS in 2007 and 2009, paying a total of around $60 million (Space Adventures now charges $50 million per trip).

Before his first take-off, Simonyi spent six months training alongside cosmonauts in Star City, near Moscow, where he exercised, learned about spaceflight and survival, and studied Russian. He had to see nearly 100 doctors and pass dozens of medical tests.

Simonyi then joined a pair of cosmonauts on a two-day trip to the ISS, which is about the size of a three-bedroom house. He spent 12 days there, taking part in medical experiments, getting to know the long-term residents and channeling Earth on amateur radio. He played a bit of space golf and called home. Of course, he spent a lot of time gazing out at the globe.

Its the speed thats the most amazing. Every 90 minutes, you see spring, you see fall, you see the Arctic, you see the tropics, you see night, you see day, he said. I realized it was an extraordinary experience, and I just had to take it all in.

Anousheh Ansari, who traveled a year before Simonyi and was the first female space tourist, wrote, The stars up here are unbelievable. It looks like someone has spread diamond dust over a black velvet blanket.

On his first flight, Simonyi brought two books: Robert Heinleins sci-fi classic The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress and a dual-language edition of Goethes Faust. The last lines of the latter became his personal slogan for the mission: The eternal feminine draws us upward. On his second trip, Simony took his wedding ring and photos of his new wife. He also brought flags American, Hungarian and Swedish to get stamped at the ISS.

Food was mostly canned or freeze-dried. Alcohol wasnt allowed. But did the Russians bring vodka? No comment, Simonyi said.

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Ready For Blast Off: Billionaire Charles Simonyi On What To Pack For Space Travel