Refugee who Fled Iran's Mullahs Becomes First Woman Space Tourist

[Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI,

"Refugee who Fled Iran's Mullahs Becomes First Woman Space Tourist"
London Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2364282,00.html

AS A young girl in Iran, Anousheh Ansari would stare in wonder at the 
stars and dream of joining them in the blackness of space.

Yesterday, a week after her 40th birthday, she made her dream come true. 
At an estimated cost of $20 million (£11 million), Mrs Ansari became the 
first woman space tourist after blasting off in a Russian Soyuz rocket 
from Star City in Kazakhstan.

As the first Iranian-born astronaut was circling Earth last night, her 
remarkable journey from Tehran to the International Space Station was 
being hailed also as evidence of the continued power of another dream: 
the American one.

Mrs Ansari was 16 when her family emigrated in 1984 as the Islamic 
Revolution in Iran was at its peak and girls faced a strictly limited 
future. Her parents said that they wanted her to be able to pursue her 
passion for science.

She arrived speaking only French and Farsi, became an American citizen 
and quickly immersed herself in the study of electronics, receiving 
degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason 
University in Virginia and George Washington University in Washington.

Mrs Ansari joined a telecommunications company, where she met her 
husband, Hamid. In 1993 she persuaded him and his brother to pool their 
savings and set up Telecom Technologies, a supplier of communication 
networks, just as the industry in America was deregulating.

The start-up grew rapidly to employ 250 people and turned the Ansaris 
into telecom tycoons when the business was sold for hundreds of millions 
of dollars in 2000.

Mrs Ansari turned her eyes again to the stars. She gave $10 million in 
2002 to the X Prize Foundation, set up to encourage advances in human 
spaceflight, as a prize for the first private venture to launch a 
reusable spacecraft into space twice in two weeks.

The Ansari X Prize was claimed in 2004 by Mojave Aerospace Ventures.

When the impoverished Russian space programme at the Baikonur centre in 
Star City began accepting paying passengers on missions, it was only a 
matter of time before Mrs Ansari signed up.

Space Adventures, the American firm that markets the trips, does not 
disclose the price but is understood to charge $20 million a ticket, 
most of which goes to the Russians.

Six months of intensive training has prepared Mrs Ansari for the 11-day 
spaceflight with two professional astronauts, Michael López-Alegría, 
from Nasa, and the Russian Mikhail Tyurin. They are due to dock tomorrow 
at the space station, where Mrs Ansari will spend eight days before 
returning to Earth with the departing crew, Pavel Vinogradov, of Russia, 
and the American , Jeffrey Williams, on September 29.

Mrs Ansari, who recently described space as being “in my soul and in my 
heart”, said before take-off that she was looking forward to seeing Iran 
again from high above Earth. She has not been back since she left.

She hopes that a new generation of girls with similarly big dreams will 
be staring back at her up among the stars. She said: “I hope to inspire 
everyone — especially young people, women and young girls all over the 
world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with 
the same opportunities as men — to not give up their dreams and to 
pursue them.

“It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can realise 
their dream if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it and look for 
opportunities and make those opportunities happen.”

Mrs Ansari’s family were at Baikonur to witness the dream and they 
celebrated with champagne and tears as the rocket took off in a plume of 
flame and smoke.

Her mother, Fakhri Shahidi, said: “It’s hard to believe my daughter is 
going to space. I pray with all my heart she’s coming back soon.”

Russia is the only country to offer space tourism for those able to 
afford the hefty fee, and Mrs Ansari is its fourth paying customer. She 
had been scheduled to go later but got her seat on this mission when 
Russian officials withdrew Daisuke Enomoto, a Japanese businessman, for 
unspecified medical reasons.

Mrs Ansari has said that she detests the term “space tourist”, 
preferring to see herself as an ambassador for a new wave of private 
explorers at Earth’s final frontier.

She told an interviewer: “Tourists are people who just buy a ticket and 
then they go. They don’t train for six months and try to learn every 
system.”

--
Mark Reiff <markreiff@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


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