last updated: Friday 27 March 2009, 09:22am

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US billionaire heads into space again

US billionaire Charles Simonyi prepares to blast off into space for second time

A US billionaire space tourist has blasted off aboard a Russian rocket to the International Space Station for a second time.

Hungarian-born Charles Simonyi, 60, who made much of his fortune developing software at Microsoft, roared off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Kazakh steppe and will dock with the ISS in two days' time.

Mr Simonyi, who paid $60 million (£41.2m) for both space trips, has made history as the first space tourist to make the journey twice.

He is crammed into the small interior of the rocket alongside Russia's Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael Barratt.

His 28-year-old Swedish wife Lisa Persdotter, clad in a floor length fur coat, was among family and friends in Kazakhstan to send him off.

Mr Simonyi has said he will be hanging up his space suit for good after this last trek. In a briefing before the flight, he said: 'I cannot fly for the third time because I have just married and I have to spend time with my family.'

He is set to return to earth on April 7 with Michael Fincke, US commander of outgoing Expedition 18, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov.

Meanwhile, space shuttle Discovery has left the ISS, ending an eight-day visit that left the outpost with its first Japanese astronaut and enough power for full-time research and three more residents.

Shuttle commander Lee Archambault and pilot Tony Antonelli pulsed Discovery's steering jets to push the 100-tonne spaceship out of its docking port.

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