Staff at the mission control centre in Korolyov near Moscow applauded when the ship reached orbit. The plan is for the rocket to dock with the ISS on Monday evening. Until that time, the cosmonauts will check the on-board systems and carry out course corrections.

Simonyi will spend the 12-day mission measuring the levels of radiation reaching the cosmonauts, but his main task will be to carry out his own plan. He will take photographs and video material, which will be continuously uploaded to his website www.charlesinspace.com. It is believed that the fifth space tourist paid $21m for his trip. "Simonyi will not play a major role in piloting the ship. His task is to enjoy the space trip - and he has paid a fair amount for the privilege," Vladimir Solovyov, the leader of the Russian part of the ISS project, told journalists in the mission control centre.

Simonyi has spent six months preparing for this trip. In the final days, he and his companions were kept in strict quarantine. The space tourist explained that this was partly to make sure he did not catch any kind of infectious disease, and partly to allow them to concentrate fully on the tasks ahead of them. Apart from swimming, physical exercise was out in the weeks before lift-off, in order to minimise the risk of injury. But there was plenty of activity. In order to prepare for periods of high gravity and then of weightlessness, the cosmonauts had to sit in the centrifuge every day, and every night they had to sleep with their legs lifted to ever higher angles, to help their brains prepare for reduced blood flow.

Andras Nemeth, Korolyov Mission Control Centre