Vienna, Va. – April 3, 2007 — Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s leading space experiences company, announced today that Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., will take several contest-winning drawings, created by Hungarian children, to space.
The contest, held by the Hungarian Red Cross, called for children in over 50 schools across the country to submit drawings that depict the organization helping people on and off the planet. The three prize-winning drawings, which were chosen from over 600 submissions, will travel with Hungarian-born Dr. Simonyi when he launches to the International Space Station (ISS) on April 7 onboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Dr. Simonyi will stamp the drawings during his 10-day stay onboard the ISS and will return the pictures to the artists during a ceremony to be held after his flight.
Dr. Simonyi said, “I look forward with great anticipation to my upcoming spaceflight and am honored to support the Hungarian Red Cross and to involve children from Hungary and around the world in the wonder of space travel.”
Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company which organized the spaceflights for the world’s first and only private space explorers, said, “We, at Space Adventures, are proud to announce Charles’ participation in the Hungarian Red Cross contest and are inspired by his dedication to opening up the final frontier to space enthusiasts of all ages.”
The committee which chose the winning pictures was composed of the first Hungarian in space, cosmonaut Bertalan Farkas, Hungarian painter and graphic artist, Izolda Macskássy, and president of the Hungarian Red Cross, Georg von Habsburg.
Dr. Simonyi continues to involve youth in the science of space travel on his Web site, www.charlesinspace.com, a rich-media site that chronicles Dr. Simonyi’s mission with photos, video, a blog, and much more. In the special section called “Kids’ Space”, children can interact with Dr. Simonyi, learn about his adventure and the wonder of space, and even earn an official “Charles in Space Certificate of Achievement”.
Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company’s advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev. For more information, please visit www.spaceadventures.com.
Erin Lundberg
Space Adventures, Ltd.
8000 Towers Crescent Drive, Ste. 1000
Vienna, Va. 22182
+1 703 894-2186
Fax +1 703 524-7176
elundberg@spaceadventures.com
www.spaceadventures.com
