Bill Gates Considering Space Tourist Trek to Iss

KOROLYOV – U.S. billionaire and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is pondering a space tourist trek to the International Space Station, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin said.

"Charles Simonyi told us that Bill gates plans to conquer space. Perhaps some of us will find himself in a company with the Microsoft head in orbit some day," Yurchikhin said.

A news conference was held on Wednesday, involving the Expedition 14 crew – Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronauts Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams, and the Expedition 15 members who arrived at the ISS recently – Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov of Russia and space tourist Charles Simonyi, a founder of Microsoft.

The ISS crew have found themselves in one company with Microsoft’s second most important person after its founder Gates, which was quite amazing, Yurchikhin said.

"It’s wonderful that a person first devotes himself entirely to business, making an image, reputation and money, and then easily conquers space. It’s different with us. We first conquer space and then think about what we’ll do next," Yurchikhin said.