Gates to become richest man in space?
With relative paupers taking jaunts into space at a pretty regular clip these days, it certainly would be no financial burden for the world's richest nerd to indulge his astronautical fantasies, and now a Russian cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station claims that Microsoft founder and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Bill Gates may be planning to do just that. In an interview broadcast from the ISS, Fyodor Yurchikhin repeated the assertions of current space tourist and former Gates co-worker Charles Simonyi that Mr. Microsoft himself "is also preparing to visit space," although Space Adventures -- which organizes these indulgent expeditions -- says that it has had no contact with Sir Bill so far. So in the absence of any official word from the Gates camp, we can only look to the man's personality for hints as to whether or not this fantastic voyage will take place -- and seeing how there's already been an iPod in orbit, we're pretty sure that Bill won't sleep soundly until all the world's gadget blogs and magazine covers are plastered with glossy pictures of a space Zune.
[Via Slashdot]
