U.S. software mogul blasts into space

By Maria Golovnina

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - U.S. software mogul Charles Simonyi and two Russian cosmonauts blasted into orbit on Saturday aboard a Russian spaceship watched by Simonyi's friend, lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.

The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, with a roar of its engines, lifted off from the Kazakh steppe into the night sky exactly on schedule at 11:31 p.m. (1731 GMT).

Nine minutes later, loudspeakers at the launch-pad announced the rocket had safely delivered Simonyi -- the world's fifth space tourist who paid $25 million for the trip -- into orbit.

"He had a big grin on his face," said Simonyi's family spokeswoman Susan Hutchison, who was able to see the crew via a live camera inside the cockpit as the spacecraft pulled away from the launch-pad.

Simonyi, a 58-year-old billionaire who helped found Microsoft, is making a 12-day round trip to the International Space Station (ISS). He was joined on the outward flight by Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.

As the crew bid farewell before boarding the craft, two and a half hours before the launch, a crowd of friends and relatives shouted "Charles, have a good flight" and "Go, Charles".

Stewart, a close friend of Simonyi and a celebrity in the United States, spent the day touring Baikonur, a scattering of Soviet-era buildings in the middle of the Kazakh steppe, while she waited for the night launch.

She took a ride on a camel and examined a yurt, a Kazakh felt hut. "Baikonur is beautiful," she said.