The $20 million vacation

Former Microsoft programmer Dr Charles Simonyi has signed up for a holiday on the International Space Station.

The 51 year-old programmer, who was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft’s Word and Excel packages, has handed over $20m for the trip and has begun training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City in Kazakhstan ready for launching in September.

“Like with any long-term plan, I had to make reservations,” said Dr Simonyi, who is currently head of development firm Intentional Software.