MOSCOW: US space tourist Charles Simonyi and two fellow crew members will return to earth a day later than planned because of boggy ground at the landing site, a spokesman for Russian mission control said on Tuesday. The spokesman said spring rain had softened the ground, forcing mission control to move slightly the designated landing spot in Kazakhstan and push re-entry back by a day.

“There is no problem though, there has just been a slight delay,” the spokesman said. A capsule carrying the three men will land on the Kazakh steppe on April 21 and not as originally planned on April 20. Simonyi, 58, paid $25 million for the trip to the International Space Station. He launched into space from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 7.—Reuters