Charles Simonyi, the former Microsoft executive who flew to the ISS in spring 2007, will return again next spring, Space Adventures announced this morning. (The news leaked out overnight in this AP article, although the formal press release wasn’t issued until this morning.) The text of the announcement follows:

Space Adventures’ Orbital Spaceflight Candidate, Charles Simonyi, Plans Spring 2009 Return Flight to the ISS

Will mark his second space mission
Previously flown to the ISS in spring 2007

Vienna, Va. – September 30, 2008 — Space Adventures, the only company that provides human space missions to the world marketplace, announced today that Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., intends to train with the Soyuz TMA-14 crew in preparation for a spring mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Space Adventures became world renowned in 2001 with the launch of client Dennis Tito, the world’s first privately funded spaceflight participant. Since then, the company has launched four other individuals to space, including Dr. Simonyi, who completed his first space mission in the spring of 2007.

“Having a repeat orbital client demonstrates to the world that participating in a space mission is truly a magnificent and awe-inspiring experience. It is also an excellent example that the marketplace is even larger than previously anticipated because of the potential occurrence of clients who fly on multiple occasions,” said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. “We congratulate Charles on his continued commitment to commercial spaceflight. We look forward to assisting him in preparation for the spring 2009 mission.”

Space Adventures’ sixth orbital spaceflight client, Richard Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, is currently scheduled to launch to the ISS on October 12, 2008.

Space Adventures will host a teleconference for the media with Dr. Simonyi on October 6, 2008 to discuss the details surrounding his intended space mission. Please contact Stacey Tearne at stearne@spaceadventures.com or at +1 703 894 2192 to register for the call and to receive dial-in instructions.

No other information is available at this time.

A few recent developments involving Virgin Galactic:

Virgin Galactic has struck a deal with NOAA to collect atmospheric data on WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo flights. The vehicles will be equipped with sensors to measure carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere; the sensors will sample air from existing systems that collect air for use by the airspeed sensors on the vehicles, thus requiring no additional modifications. The initial agreement covers the approximately 200 test flights for the WK2 prototype.

Those test flights have yet to begin, and Flight International reported this week that the first test flights have been pushed back to later this year. The test flights were slated to begin in September when WK2 was rolled out in late July in Mojave.

Virgin officials also said this week that they are still interested in conducting flights from Scotland, starting in 2013. RAF Lossiemouth is the best of three locations under consideration, according to Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn. “The runway is on the edge of the sea so you can take off over the Moray Firth, which is safer than taking off over a populated area,” he said of the Lossiemouth location. “There’s also closed air space in that area which would be ideal for us launching the spaceship at 50,000ft.”

When people think of the Yucatan Peninsula and Mexico, they usually think of resort destinations like Cancun and Cozumel, or exploring Mayan ruins like Chichen Itza. However, some people are proposing the region for a spaceport that could serve space tourism, according to a report in Sunday’s Stockton (Calif.) Record. When not training for a shuttle mission to the ISS next year, NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, a native of Stockton, has been advising Mexican officials who are trying to establish a national space agency. Part of those plans, according to the report, include “a commercial launch platform for space tourism in Yucatan, Mexico.” Legislation creating the Mexican Space Agency is scheduled to a vote by the Mexican Senate this week.

It’s difficult to take this development too seriously at the moment, given the information included in the article:

Hernandez said Yucatan, the location of the agency’s commercial space tourism launch station, is geographically ideal for frequent commercial use because it’s situated directly under the equator.

The close proximity into space means shuttles could carry more weight and save on fuel costs at the same time.

The problem here is that the Yucatan is most certainly not situated directly under the Equator. In fact, it’s on average about 20 degrees north of the Equator. That’s closer to the Equator than, say, Cape Canaveral, but farther north than the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana. Moreover, for suborbital space tourism, latitude isn’t important, since you’re not trying to reach orbit; the position of the facility relative to the Equator is important only for orbital launches, where being closer is an advantage. Also, saving on “fuel costs” is traditionally not a concern for launch vehicle operators, since the cost of propellants is a tiny fraction of the overall vehicle cost.

Left unsaid in the article is perhaps the biggest issue: how much would this “launch platform” cost and whether the Mexican government is willing to pay for it. So don’t count on mixing some Cancun sun with some suborbital fun any time soon.

[Yes, I'm trying to get back into the blogging game here again. Thanks for your patience.]

A report by the Arab news channel Al Arabiya notes that more Saudis have signed up for Virgin Galactic flights than from any other nation in the middle East. The article doesn’t provide any hard numbers, but states that Kuwait and the UAE follow Saudi Arabia in numbers of their citizens who have signed up with Virgin. That shouldn’t be that surprising, since all three nations are relatively wealthy, and Saudi Arabia has vastly more people than either: more than 10 times more citizens than Kuwait, for example. What would be more interesting to know is, on a per capita basis, which of these three countries would be in the lead, and how they would stack up against the US, UK, and other nations.