A little light(weight) reading

The library on the International Space Station is about to expand by two volumes. Charles Simonyi, who made his billions leading teams that developed Microsoft Word and Excel, will be the fifth tourist to visit the ISS following his March 2007 Soyuz launch. Simonyi, who booked his $20-million-plus flight through the firm Space Adventures, plans to deliver two books to the ISS.

His choices? Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Faust (in German and English) and Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

“I think that every place where educated people congregate should have some books,” Simonyi told me. “I’m exercising my freedom as a spaceflight participant where I can choose my payload.”