SEATTLE, May 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- What travels an average of 17,236 mph, covering five and a half million miles and experiencing 213 sunsets in just 14 days? Between April 7 and April 21, it was Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., the fifth private spaceflight participant.

Those aren't the only impressive statistics from Dr. Simonyi's mission to space. The Web site http://www.charlesinspace.com/, where Dr. Simonyi has been chronicling his experiences since he first announced his trip to the International Space Station, received unprecedented visitor traffic. During the 14 days Dr. Simonyi was in space, the site garnered over 33.5 million hits. On launch day alone, the site had nearly 14 million hits from people who tuned in to watch live coverage, which is now archived on the site.

Visitors came back for live coverage of milestone events throughout the mission, including docking with the space station, hatch opening, Cosmonautics Day celebration, live press conferences and landing.

In addition to live coverage, the site featured exclusive video from Dr. Simonyi, photos, audio podcasts and personal blogs. On average, visitors spent eight minutes on the site, digging into the wealth of content Dr. Simonyi has provided.

"People have a voracious appetite for the material found on CharlesinSpace.com," said Tim Garrigan, principal of The Garrigan Lyman Group, the creators of Dr. Simonyi's Web site. "The millions of hits the site received and continues to receive are just part of the equation. The impact of the content is equally significant."

During his 14-day mission, organized by Space Adventures, Ltd., Dr. Simonyi received more than 4,000 questions from adults and children from over 50 different countries, and he devoted time each day to answering as many as possible.

"I especially looked forward to receiving questions from kids while in orbit," said Dr. Simonyi. "They were genuinely curious about space and science, and asked some very intelligent questions. In fact, any adult interested in checking out the next generation of thinkers should visit Kids' Space on my site."

One such question came from a six-year-old in Australia: "Do you dream in space? Are those dreams different?" Dr. Simonyi responded, "Yes, I do ... The strangest one was during a catnap on the second day. I was dreaming of filling out some experiment forms on the ground. When Oleg [Soyuz TMA-10 commander] woke me up, I found myself in a spacecraft-the reality was stranger than the dream!"

Now back on Earth, Dr. Simonyi is expanding upon his mission by continuing to share the experience on his site with more blog entries, new answers to visitor questions, photos he took while in space and high-definition video he brought back with him.

About Dr. Charles Simonyi

Dr. Simonyi is president and chief executive officer of Intentional Software, a software engineering firm based in Bellevue, Washington, that is focused on improving the way organizations write software. His mission to the International Space Station is the latest destination in a life defined by exploration and discovery. As a software engineer, an aviator and a space traveler, Dr. Simonyi brought his passion for flight and engineering to his April 2007 Orbital Spaceflight Scientific Mission.

About http://www.charlesinspace.com/

Dr. Simonyi's award-winning site, http://www.charlesinspace.com/, was created to further develop his three space mission objectives: to inspire the world's children in the science of space travel, advance civilian spaceflight and assist in space station research. Visitors to this interactive, rich-media site are able to access content that was provided by Dr. Simonyi while he was in space. Additionally, they can read Dr. Simonyi's in-depth blogs, ask questions directly to Dr. Simonyi, see his personally captioned pictures, watch video and access other space-related links. In the Kids' Space section of the Web site, children can take an interactive quiz, and parents and teachers have an educational resource at their fingertips.

CONTACT: Tara Ward of The Garrigan Lyman Group, +1-206-223-5548,
tara.ward@glg.com

Web site: http://www.spaceadventures.com/