Charles Simonyi returned to earth on Saturday, April 21, one day late, but with a big smile.

Simonyi, who made billions designing software for Microsoft, reportedly spent $25 million of his fortune to ride on a Soyuz TMA-10 rocket with two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station. On April 7, he became the world's fifth space tourist, courtesy of the space tourism company Space Adventures, and by spending 14 days in space, Simonyi became the world's longest space tourist. On the ride back down to Kazakhstan, he shared a space capsule with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, both of whom had spent seven months in space.

What's the connection to the world of Russian adoption, you ask? Well, there are two. First, and perhaps most obvious, my little guy, who came here just 18 months ago from Sakhalin Island, wants to be an astronaut. We were able to follow Simonyi's flight and learn about the training he had to go through from the Web site that he set up, Charles In Space. It is a really well designed Web site that takes full advantage of all the Web's multimedia capabilities. There are a lot of videos on the site to help tell the story. (We visit NASA's Web site on a regular basis too.)

But the best part is the site's "Kid's Space" section. There are space facts and quizzes and answers to several hundred questions that kids posted to the site. My favorite was Simonyi's answer to the question about what does it take to be an astronaut: "eat healthy, brush your teeth and do your homework."

There is another adoption connection to this story, though. When my little guy and I came to Moscow for the final steps of his adoption, we had a bit of time to kill between official appointments. So we took a walk down to Gorky Park. There was a lovely old-fashioned carousel out front, and a woman just getting off the ride was an American with a son just a bit older than mine. We got to talking, and it turned out she was the daughter of Gregory Olsen, the New Jersey electronics entrepreneur who was Space Adventures' third client. She and her son had traveled to Russia to watch her dad take off and land.

I've always meant to write her a thank-you note for her kindness that day, but in the crush of parenting and work, I never got the time. So Krista, please accept a very belated "Thanks."