The world's fifth space tourist, Hungarian-born American Charles Simonyi, is finishing his preparations for the flight at the Russian cosmonaut training facility, Star City. The launch is scheduled for April 7.

The man, who invented and taught the world to use Microsoft Excel and Word, 58-year-old Charles Simonyi, still has things to learn before he becomes the world's next space tourist. Paying some $US 20 MLN alone doesn't automatically make you a star traveller.

Charles has to know everything a normal cosmonaut does. Almost a year of thorough training includes both theory and practice from emergency landings and survival to spaceflight simulation and spacecraft driving lessons.

“Space tourists are being prepared exactly on the same level we prepare Russian, NASA or ESA cosmonauts. Charles is very quick learner, so I am sure he’ll be alright. But I hope emergencies we prepare our students for will never happen,” says Oleg Farzinov, Roskosmos medical instructor.

Since he was a little boy Charles Simonyi wanted to travel to the stars. Born in Hungary, he even won a Soviet youth contest and went to Moscow to meet real cosmonauts.

“It was a magic time. We were driven through Moscow in a bus that was made up to look like a rocket. And those were the days when space was very much the foremost of everybody’s mind. But I have to say that I was very disappointed of the Soviet secrecy. There was so little information, real information that we could learn about even how the rockets looked. And we were so thirsty for information. And now of course everything has changed so much, I enjoy every detail,” he says.

The training programme includes a course of Russian language, in which Charles will communicate with the rest of the crew.

“I think that the Russian language is much harder than the rest of the spaceflight together. But it’s really worth learning it, because the Russian language is so wonderful, and I know that I will continue studying Russian even after the flight,” Charles promises.

Charles Simonyi is scheduled for launch on April, 7 on board the Russian Soyuz TMA 10 spaceship. He will spend 10 days onboard the ISS and will carry out some scientific experiments of his own.