Space tourist flying high ahead of orbit visit

US entrepreneur Charles Simonyi has a brand new suit, and it comes with a pretty sweet ride.

The Hungary-born American software developer is ecstatic about his new Russian-built Sokol spacesuit; a must-have item for his planned April 7 launch towards the International Space Station (ISS).

“Just being in my own spacesuit... was really an incredible experience,” Simonyi, 58, said this week as he headed to Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training centre, near Moscow, to complete his preflight training.

Billionaire Simonyi will become only the fifth space tourist in the world when he makes his trip to the ISS research facility, aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-10.

“Preparations for the launch have begun at the Baikonur space centre,” according to Russia’s federal space agency, Roskosmos.

The Soyuz TMA-10 is in Baikonur Cosmodrome, near a city of the same name, in Kazakhstan. Both the city and cosmodrome are rented and administered by Russia. Tests on the spacecraft are underway.

Simonyi, a software developer, has been in training since November. He will be accompanied by two Russian cosmonauts, Fedor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.

Simonyi left Hungary for the United States at the age of 17, making his fortune working for Microsoft in the 1980s.

Previous space tourists included American Dennis Tito, South African Mark Shuttleworth, American Gregory Olsen and, most recently, Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari.