Martha Stewart Sends Off Friend In Style

Monday, April 09, 2007

Martha Stewart will literally go to the ends of the earth for her loved ones. So, it was no big sacrifice for her to travel all the way to the central-Asian country of Kazakhstan. She was there to send her friend, Charles Simonyi, into space with style.

Charles Simonyi (age 56) is a software engineer who helped to develop Microsoft Windows. He has been friends with Martha Stewart for several years. He was there to support her through her incarceration at Alderson Federal Prison Camp.  She was sent there when she was convicted of insider trading.  After her release he stood up for his close friend Martha by telling the press, “She went through a difficult experience with dignity.”

The eccentric Simonyi paid a sum of $25 million dollars to fulfill his dream of traveling through space. On Saturday he blasted off with two Russian cosmonauts on a
13-day trip to the international space station. Hungarian born Simonyi completed a rigorous training program to qualify for the experience.

On Friday, Stewart visited her friend through a plated glass window.  Simonyi and the Russian cosmonauts were in isolation to protect them from germs that might make them sick during their 13 day space trip.

Martha prepared a special space meal for the trip. The meal is to be eaten on April 12, which is a Russian holiday called cosmonaut’s day. The meal Martha planned consists of quail roasted in Madiran wine, duck breast confit with capers and semolina cake with dried apricots, among other delicacies.

Simonyi will document his space adventure in blogs written during his trip.  He hopes he will inspire others, especially children, to get interested in space exploration. He will also conduct experiments at the space station, measuring radiation levels and study biological organisms in a lab.