Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight

Software billionaire Charles Simonyi peeks inside the Soyuz spacecraft he purchased and is now lending to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. The Soyuz TMA-14, which Simonyi rode into space in 2009, was shipped from Russia and was unpacked at the museum on Friday.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft that carried a billionaire into orbit — and ended up being purchased by the billionaire — was settled into its new home in Seattle's Museum of Flight on Friday after a whirlwind intercontinental trip.

Software executive Charles Simonyi was on hand for the arrival of the Soyuz TMA-14 descent module, which took him into space along with a NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut in March 2009. That launch marked Simonyi's second trip to the International Space Station, for which he paid an estimated $35 million.

Simonyi rode back down to Earth on a different three-seat Soyuz at the end of his 13-day space trip. The TMA-14 remained docked to the station until the next departure, six months later. After it landed, Simonyi had the opportunity to buy the spacecraft from the Russians, and he took it. Although the purchase price was not disclosed, it was probably more than $1 million and less than the $3 million that Simonyi donated to the Museum of Flight for its new Space Gallery.

The Soyuz was crated up and flown to Chicago on a Russian transport plane, then loaded onto a truck for the 2½-day drive to Seattle, museum curator Dan Hagedorn told me. "It made a record transit out here," he said.

In a statement issued by the museum, Simonyi said he hoped the exhibit "will inspire the next generation of space explorers."

Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight

The Soyuz TMA-14 sits on its shipping pallet inside the Museum of Flight's Charles Simonyi Space Gallery.

Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight

The Soyuz spacecraft is designed to be operated by the commander in the center seat of the three-seat descent module, as you can see from this interior view of the Soyuz TMA-14.

Ted Huetter / Museum of Flight

Software executive Charles Simonyi shakes hands with Dan Hagedorn, curator of the Museum of Flight, marking the formal acceptance of Simonyi's loan of the Soyuz to the Seattle museum. The video below, from The Seattle Times, provides a 360-degree view of the Soyuz.

As I noted in December, when the Space Gallery opened its doors, this isn't the first slightly used Soyuz capsule to be purchased by a passenger: An earlier spaceflight participant, New Jersey inventor/entrepreneur Greg Olsen, also bought his Soyuz and had it put on display at New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Another one of Simonyi's space acquisitions may be more precedent-setting: a working space toilet from Russia.

Shuttle mockup on the way
Eventually, the space toilet and the Soyuz will be joined in the 15,500-square-foot Charles Simonyi Space Gallery by the museum's piece de resistance: a full-scale mockup of the space shuttle's fuselage. Astronauts at Johnson Space Center used the full-fuselage trainer to familiarize themselves with the shuttle's interior, and when the shuttle fleet was retired, NASA awarded the 120-foot-long mockup to the Museum of Flight.

The shuttle stand-in is due to be shipped up to Seattle in pieces, starting in May. "It'll be coming in on the massive Super Guppy, which is going to be an event in itself," Hagedorn said. "We think by the end of July it'll be fully assembled."

Visitors will be able to walk through the mockup's cargo bay, but access to the crew compartment and the cockpit will be provided only "on a very limited basis" because the quarters are so tight, Hagedorn said. Despite those limits, visitors will almost certainly be able to go places they could never go in the shuttles that flew in space, which will be put on display at museums in Florida, California and "the other Washington."

Hagedorn, who is 65 years old, sounded like a kid as he talked about the Soyuz and the full-fuselage trainer. "They're the cat's meow," he said. "I tell people I have the best job in the world."

More about space artifacts:

• Russian spacecraft heading for Seattle
• Seattle museum gets 'keys' to shuttle trainer
• The real dirt about the Soyuz space toilet
• Shuttles' future homes: Fla., Calif., D.C., N.Y.

Simonyi is the founder of Intentional Software. Microsoft, where Simonyi used to work, is a partner along with NBC Universal in the msnbc.com joint venture. I helped prepare a mission pamphlet for Simonyi's first spaceflight in 2007 as a freelance project.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Sarah Lee / The Science Museum via Reuters

Physicist Stephen Hawking is seen in his office at the University of Cambridge in this photo taken for London's Science Museum in December. The picture is part of a series of photographic portraits commissioned by the Science Museum to celebrate Hawking's 70th birthday on Jan. 8. The pictures are part of an exhibit at the musem celebrating Hawking's life and achievements.

The cosmic curios of the world's best-known physicist went on display today at a London science museum, chronicling the amazing 70 years of Stephen Hawking's life. Over the decades, the quadriplegic genius has popped up in so many pop-culture settings that some of those curios require a little explanation.

That's what we found when we ran a picture of the professor in his Cambridge office as the first installment of a "Where in the Cosmos" series on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. There's such a generous assortment of gewgaws that it's a wonder Hawking gets anything done.

It turns out that the scene was arranged to show off Hawking's stuff for the exhibit at the Science Museum in London. Take the bronze statue on the desk, for example. I was particularly intrigued by the out-of-focus statue because it seemed to hold such a prominent place in the picture.

"I believe the statue is of the pope," Tracey Walters wrote. "But the picture is kinda fuzzy, so who knows which one?" Others wondered if it was the theologian Erasmus, or maybe King Midas.

Hawking's longtime executive assistant, Judith Croasdell, straightened out the mystery in an email.

"The statue is the Fonseca Prize which Professor Hawking received in Santiago de Compestela, in 2008," she wrote. "It normally sits not on Stephen's desk but on the window shelf because it is heavy — 2 kilograms worth of bronze. Obviously it was put on the desk for the photographers."

A less weighty curio is far easier to recognize: It's a plastic action figure of Hawking as he appeared in an episode of "The Simpsons," the animated show that the physicist has called the best thing American television has to offer. The figurine is festooned with the helicopter top and the spring-loaded boxing glove that played their part in the "Simpsons" plot. In the distance, you can just make out a picture on the wall that shows Hawking encountering Maggie Simpson and other characters from the show. Watch this YouTube clip to learn more about Hawking's "Simpsons" connection.

Other items include a little toy computer with sticky notes, a space shuttle model, and a crystal globe. "The crystal globe is a present given by Discovery and shows a map of the world," Croasdell says. "Carved on the globe are the words 'What is essential is invisible to the eye,' [from] Saint-Exupery."

There's a humidifier on his desk that holds an assortment of seashells. The blackboard you see in the picture above is covered with equations scribbled by his students. Another blackboard in the room, not seen here, that has mathematical in-jokes written on it.

Sarah Lee / Science Museum via Reuters

Another picture commissioned by the Science Museum shows Stephen Hawking with a picture of Marilyn Monroe looming over him.

Another photo of Hawking's office, taken from a different perspective, gives prominent play to his picture of Marilyn Monroe, who is one of the professor's favorite personages from the past. "If I had a time machine, I'd drop in on Marilyn Monroe in her prime," he once mused. The room's walls are covered with flyers as well as photos from Hawking's trips around the world.

To find out more about these items and others in Hawking's office, check out Roger Highfield's profile of the professor in The Telegraph.

The photos are just one little piece of the Science Museum's one-room exhibition: Museumgoers can also see pictures of Hawking before his struggle with motor neuron disease, as well as mementos that touch upon the highlights of his long career. The Science Museum's inventor in residence, Mark Champkins, created a "Black Hole Light" in Hawking's honor that uses a swirl of neon tubing to evoke the path photons would take as they fell into a black hole.

Here's a sampling of the sights:

AP

The Science Museum displays a selection of books and papers by British physicist Stephen Hawking. His best-known work, "A Brief History of Time," has been translated into more than 30 languages. The object at right that looks like a model of Saturn is actually the 2010 Cosmos Award, which Hawking received from the Planetary Society. Hawking's Fonseca Prize and Prince of Asturias Award are also on display.

Alastair Grant / AP

A diagram by British physicist Stephen Hawking, titled "Black Hole and Unpredictability," is one of the papers on display at the Science Museum.

Alastair Grant / AP

A marked script from a "Simpsons" episode that aired in 1999 highlights Stephen Hawking's lines, including this one: "Silence! I don't need anyone to talk for me except this voicebox." The Stephen Hawking action figure has a helicopter-style wheelchair and a boxing glove, just like the character on the show.

Update for 12:45 a.m. ET Jan. 21: When the Planetary Society's Charlene Anderson took a look at the pictures above, she saw a familiar sight — the planet-shaped Cosmos Award that Hawking received from the society in 2010. Check out her posting to the Planetary Society's blog, in which she expresses her surprise and pleasure at seeing the society's award in such a place of honor.

Next on 'Where in the Cosmos': Today's picture puzzle focuses on a far-out subject that's been the subject of research recently. I haven't written anything about it yet, but next week I'll fill you in on why it's significant. One of our Cosmic Log friends has already figured out what the picture shows, and as a reward I'll be sending her a copy of John Gribbin's latest book, "Alone in the Universe." To join the conversation, check out the "Where in the Cosmos" posting on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.

More about Stephen Hawking's life and work:

• Stephen Hawking misses 70th-birthday party
• What mystifies Stephen Hawking? Women
• Hawking defies crippling disease at 70
• Hawking's quantum universe

The exhibit celebrating Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday runs through April 9 at the Science Museum in London.

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.