By Tim Receveur
Washington File Staff
Writer
Anousheh Ansari joins astronauts, cosmonauts on
International Space Station
Washington – When Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari blasted into space
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 18 aboard a Soyuz
spacecraft, she accomplished more than fulfilling a childhood dream: She
made the history books.
Ansari, who is on an eight-day visit to the International Space Station
(ISS), became the first Muslim woman and first Iranian in space as well as the
first private female space tourist. The launch was six days after her 40th
birthday.
Anousheh Ansari joins
astronauts, cosmonauts on International Space Station
Accompanying her on the mission are Expedition 14 commander Michael
Lopez-Alegria, a Spanish-born American, and Russian flight engineer Mikhail
Tyurin, who will spend six months in orbit as the station's 14th permanent
crew. The three arrived at the space station early on September 20. (See
related
article.)
Ansari, a telecommunications entrepreneur, is scheduled to return to Earth
September 28 with two outgoing Expedition 13 crew members -- commander Pavel
Vinogradov, a Russian cosmonaut, and science officer Jeff Williams, a NASA
astronaut. Another current ISS crew member, European Space Agency (ESA)
astronaut and flight engineer Thomas Reiter, is scheduled to stay aboard the
station until December.
Ansari is flying under contract with Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space
Agency, according to a NASA press release. Her flight was arranged through Space
Adventures, Ltd., a company based in Arlington, Virginia. It has organized
spaceflights for three other private space explorers, all men.
To afford her some privacy on the space station, she has been assigned a
separate sleeping space in the station’s docking module.
"Anousheh is a true space ambassador and is dedicated to using her experience
to educate as many people as possible. During her stay, she will perform four
scientific experiments for the ESA examining causes of anemia and back pain that
affect astronauts in zero gravity, as well as investigating the effects of space
radiation and bacteria on the health of space crews.
In addition, she has launched a space blog where she will answer
questions from around the world.
“The launch was very smooth. The trip to the station felt long
but it was worth it. I cannot keep my eyes off the windows. Earth is
magnificent and peaceful from up here,” said Ansari on her September 20 blog
entry.
“The Earth is so beautiful and if we could all see it this way
I’m sure we would do everything in our power to preserve it. I truly hope
that more and more people get to experience this trip first hand,” she
said.
To prepare for her spaceflight, Ansari completed a
cosmonaut-training program at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located
in Star City, Russia.
Ansari immigrated to the United States in 1984 at the age of 16
knowing only a few words of English and became a successful telecommunications
entrepreneur. She is co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems Inc., a
consumer technology company headquartered in Texas. In 2004, the Ansari
family made a multimillion dollar contribution to the X-Prize Foundation, which
offered a $10 million prize to the first nongovernment organization that could
launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within a two-week
period.
According to the foundation’s Web site, 26 teams from seven
different nations competed for the multimillion dollar prize. On October 4,
2004, the X Prize Foundation awarded the prize to Mojave Aerospace Ventures for
the flight of the experimental space plane SpaceShipOne.
In addition to space flight, Ansari has an interest in social
entrepreneurship. She has served on the boards of directors for the Make-a-Wish
Foundation of North Texas and works with a number of other nonprofit
organizations, including the Ashoka Foundation in its support of social
entrepreneurs.
In a related story, the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis landed
safely in Florida on September 21 bringing to a successful end its 11-day
mission to resume construction of the ISS. (See article.)
More information on the Ansari X
Prize and Anousheh Ansari’s Space Blog can be found at her Web site.
For additional information on the International Space Station,
see Science and Technology. See also Muslim
Life in America.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
