Last year gave us the news of a madly love-struck astronaut, and this year, we'll be witnessing how taking out books outside the premises without asking permission will take something important away from you: in this case, the privilege to be the first person from your country to be sent into space. Read all about it in the full article.

South Korea's Ko San will be blasting off to the International Space Station bringing with him his country's national dish, kimchi.

Apparently, it took three government research institutes, millions of dollars and years in order to make this thing happen. Find out more after the jump!

U.S. software mogul Charles Simonyi became the world's fifth space tourist - "space flight participant," as officials call them - to go into orbit. Simonyi, who helped developed Microsoft Word, paid US$ 25M for the opportunity to join the crew of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-10.

The 58-year-old Hungary-born billionaire is making a 12-day round trip to the International Space Station (ISS). Joining him on the trip were Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov of the 15th ISS crew. The spacecraft Simonyi and the Russian cosmonauts lifted off from the Bainokur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:31 P.M. local time (1:31 P.M. EDT). They are due to dock with the ISS on Monday.

Simonyi will be treating the current occupants of the ISS to a gourmet meal three days after arriving at the space station. The meal will be held in honor of Cosmonauts' Day, the Russian holiday commemorating Yuri Gagarin's historic 1961 space flight. Everybody else mentioned who prepared the meal so we won't. Suffice to say, she's famous, knows her way around a house, and looked good in orange.

Instead of racing each other to space or to the Moon as they did back in the bad old days, Cold War rivals now hope to go hand-in-hand in returning to the Moon. Through its spokesperson, the Russian Federal Space Agency (more commonly known as Roskosmos) voiced its hopes of joining NASA in its back-to-the-Moon program through technology and know-how.

Hey, it's not a bad deal, and not just because they were the first satellite, animal, and human into space. When the USSR became the CIS, one of the signs that things had indeed changed was cooperation between Russian and American space agencies. They've had longer experiences with keeping men in space for long periods of time, (critical for long-duration lunar missions) right up to the Mir space station and now continuing with the International Space Station. Their workhorses, Soyuz and Progress, complement the American Space Shuttle in supplying the ISS.

Given NASA estimates of US$ 104 billion in mission price tag and investments to get a four-man crew back to the Moon - not including keeping them there for quite a bit of time - there's a lot of room for potential partners like Roskosmos to contribute, although their contribution will be through tech-transfers and not cash. Roskosmos spokesman Igor Panarin also notes that "space research is a vast field with plenty of room for every nation".

But yeah, hitching along for the ride's also a good way to bootstrap or at least achieve the potential of the Russian space program.

Virgin Galactic's budget $200,000 space trip ticket is not dirt-cheap, but compared to the estimated $20 million dollars Soyuz charges for its space tourists, it's a bargain. Space travel for non-astronauts is expected to become big business in the not-so-distant future.

Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites are working on a fleet of SpaceShipTwo spacecraft capable of taking passengers into sub-orbital space starting 2008. While not as high as NASA and Soyuz space travel, Virgin Galactic passengers will get to experience zero gravity. The company's upcoming fleet will be housed in Spaceport America, near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico which is 4,700 feet above sea level. The company chose the site for its "open land and vacancy" and great weather conditions. Plus at that elevation, the trip is not only shorter, it also requires less fuel.

The man behind Virgin Galactic is Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, a British entrepreneur whose business interests include Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Records and Virgin Cola and Vodka.

The tales of Sinbad the Sailor are based on voyages of exploration by Muslim Arab sailors during the Middle Ages. Zheng-He, the famous Chinese admiral whose ships reached the east coast of Africa and possibly the Oregon coast was also a follower of Islam.

A representative of the Muslim world is now posed to relive a religion devoted to mathematics, science and exploration. Muszaphar Shukor, a 34-year-old doctor will become Malaysia's first astronaut when he blasts off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft just about a year from now. Malaysian army dentist Faiz Khaleed, 26, will be the back-up astronaut. They will now travel to Moscow's Star City for a year of training.

Shukor and Khaleed were chosen from a list of 10,000 applicants. "I feel honoured and blessed to be picked," Shukor says. "I've dreamed to go to space since I was 10 years old. My favourite TV programmes have been Star Trek and the Star Wars movies."

Anoushe Ansari may not be a household name yet but she will go down in history as the first woman space tourist. The Iranian-born American entrepreneur will board a Russian Soyuz TMA-9 capsule to the International Space Station set for a September 14 to 18 launch window.

Ansari's space tour bus will be headed by cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria and will last for 10 days before returning to Earth. 

Ansari says her upcoming trip as a dream come true because space is "in my heart and in my soul."Ansari said she hopes to inspire young people worldwide, "especially women and girls."

Ansari is prohibited from revealing the cost of her trip but she said previous space tourists paid around $20 million.

35-year-old Internet tycoon Daisuke Enomoto (affectionately known as "Dice-K") has been found physically unfit for space travel by Russian doctors and will not be traveling into orbit next month. Enomoto (above, left) would have paid $20 million USD for a flight to the International Space Station. He has been training for the trip for several months. A self-confessed "cartoon geek," Enomoto's dream was to look down upon the planet dressed as one of his favorite cartoon characters, an ace pilot from an animated Japanese TV series.

Igor Panarin, spokesman for the space agency Roskosmos said "It is not ruled out that after additional measures are taken, he could fly in the future. But this will take time." Anousheh Ansari, a U.S. sponsor of the $10 million X Prize for private spaceflight awarded in 2004 is the most likely candidate to take Enomoto's place on the Soyuz flight.

The first space tourist was US millionaire Dennis Tito in 2001. He was followed  by South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and US businessman Greg Olsen in 2005.

Last Thursday, the orbital tourism company Space Adventures happily announced that Charles Simonyi, former Microsoft developer, has successfully passed his medical exam. The exam was conducted by a Russian medical review board.

Simonyi is set to visit the International Space Station. While there is no definite date yet as to his take-off, he falls behind Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who's set to go on a 10-day space trip this September, and just ahead of US Entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari in the exclusive list of space tourists. He will ride aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS, where he will spend eight days.

The president and CEO of Space Adventures, Eric Anderson, has stated that although he Simonyi has not yet entered into the full cosmonaut training yet, he is most definitely given the green light for all training and flight.

The Government Medical Commission (GMK) of Russia is the medical review board of the Russian Federation, who convened on August 8 to review the space tourist candidate's general medical condition and fitness.

Space Adventures has also recently announced their plan for trips around the moon, tagged at the whopping amount of $100 million, as well as spacewalks for those who can afford to have their bank accounts dented by an additional $15 million on top of their $20 million space ticket.

Space Tourism sure is definitely on a full-swing, as it gains popularity among those who can particularly afford it. From businessmen to pop stars (remember Lance Bass of N'sync?), we just might soon have the first female space tourist.

US Entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari - who's been speculated months ago to possibly be the first female space tourist - has her eyes set on a possible 2008 flight to the International Space Station (ISS). She has spent the last few months training as a backup spaceflyer for Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto for its September 14 launch. The Japanese tycoon is reportedly paying $20 million for a 10-day roundtrip to the orbital laboratory.

Keeping in mind that she needs all the preparation she can get for her awaited mission, Ansari gladly jumped at the opportunity offered to her by Space Adventures officials to be Enomoto's backup. “I’m mentally prepared to do that and it would be a great personal experience,” says Ansari on her being a backup. But inasmuch as it may give her that one step closer to her goal of setting off to space, she would rather bide her time, and just do the necessary preparations for her trip. “But for my flight I have a lot of projects that I’d like to do, and if I fly now that means that none of those projects would be there."

U.S. businessman and former Microsoft software developer Charles Simonyi goes ahead Ansari in the exclusive list of space tourists after signing a contract with Russian space officials to fly toward the ISS in Spring 2007, which would be on the next Soyuz to fly after Enomoto launches with the ISS Expedition 14 Crew.