BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) -- Not many things are less challenging than staring at the Kazakh steppe all day. Such was our distraction on our drive to the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

Forest became grassland, grassland turned into desert and desert reverted to grassland. A river flashed by and a shepherd on horseback turned to watch our car speed past. It felt a bit like being in outer space.

Then, in the midst of this barren, monotonous expanse, rose Baikonur, the world's oldest space launch facility and a storied vestige of the rivalries of the Cold War.

The vast complex, itself the size of a small country, found itself adrift in Kazakhstan with the break-up of the Soviet Union. It is now technically part of Russia, which pays rent on it under a lease that runs until 2050.

Just 125 miles east of the Aral Sea and 10 times that far from Moscow, Baikonur is surrounded by a big fence and administered by a Russian mayor, a stocky man with straightforward manners.

We had gone there for the launch on April 7 of the Soyuz TMA-10 spaceship, bound for the international space station with two Russian cosmonauts and American space tourist Charles Simonyi.

Simonyi, one of the founders of Microsoft, paid $25 million for his two-week trip, which made him the first billionaire in space.

The event was another first for Baikonur, set up by the Soviet Union in the mid-1950s initially as a secret long-range missile test facility.

It was the venue for the launch in 1957 of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, then in 1961 for the historic flight that made Yuri Gagarin the first man in space.

Capturing the cosmos

In many ways Baikonur has changed little since it was set up.

The town that caters to the cosmodrome, now also called Baikonur but known as Leninsk until 1995, is a collection of quiet, orderly streets lined with buildings that look older than they should for their age.

A poster in one shop shows a rocket in flight, leaving a trail of fire.

It reads: "Cosmos".

"Cosmos is inside you," said one journalist, a phrase repeated by Baikonur residents inexplicably often.

The place still has a feel of the Soviet Union about it, tinged with an air of the wild frontier. But these days it is accompanied by a touch of the surreal.

We checked into the Central Hotel on Lenin Square, where guests register on the ground floor, pay on the second and receive the keys on the fourth.

Then there was Martha Stewart, the American queen of sophisticated domestic styles for the masses, who showed up to see off her friend Simonyi.

Stewart, who had selected the menu for a special dinner for Simonyi and the crew of the space station, wore the same charming smile each time she made a public appearance.

"Baikonur is beautiful," she would say.

One day a camel appeared at a ceremony in her heavily guarded hotel.

"Very lovable," Stewart said.

Simonyi and the two Russian cosmonauts he flew with had to go into quarantine before their flight.

When they emerged from their quarantine zone, they were greeted by journalists wearing surgical masks and white coats who flashed their cameras and thrust microphones at them.

They felt excited, they felt great, they were really looking forward to it. They had nothing much else to say. We took down every word.

Pretending not to notice us, the cosmonauts played table tennis and pool. They ate vegetables, pork and a muffin for lunch.

Then they were gone in the dead of night, propelled into space by a rocket that puffed and exhaled a cloud of smoke, roared skywards, turned into a bright dot and disappeared from sight.

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昨天，是一张作废的支票;明天，是尚未兑现的期票；只有今天才是现金，有流通性的价值之物......

Someone say:When the matter become the worst,it's becoming well increasiely.So,pereisten is victory.（情况坏到极点，通常开始好转。因此，坚持就是胜利。）

I'm agree with him。

There is something I need to say? Oh,No.Nothing.I am so sorry.

I am a man of my word.

I have no time to lost.

Don't cry,I'm not cry.Because I'm here.

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Second car.Call me in the gate.Keep tight.

She's here.Five minutes.

What's your name children.Put gun down.Please!Read it.Louder

I promise you.This little boy respent my country.

I want to say goodbye.

I don't know what should I do in my spare time.Now I have many many spare time.So I want not study sometimes.But next time surf is the last chance for me.I do don't like surf however,I can't control myself,coming to net bar.Increasely,I impose me go another place.At least this long time.

What's more important,we should do something quickly.Don't worry.

Today,I spend RMB40.That is a big number for me as I have no cablity of learn money now.Go to have a long walk with money,however ,I spend part of them although I decide to spend no.Seeing many good basketball shoes,in fact I have many shoes,so I think this problem carefully.Not buy.Another things I learned is you shoule do something quickly which you think it worhy.

Play have not a ending,study so.But play have no good result.For my future?

I should have some friends during postgraduate,not like my graduat,having no friends.

I want to talk some about study English.I don't know why I study many English.I find I am interested in english.No matter reading,listening,writing,watching film of english.I want to use it in the future.Our purpose is use it well.I hope there is one day my english become very well.What is your future is decided by yourself.Now you shoud see some thing what will happen in the next severl years,just like my father.