Anousheh Ansari is a serial entrepreneur and is Chairwoman to Prodea Systems of Plano Texas. She also is the first female private space explorer (tourist), who is flying under commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.
She is part of the International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 14 crew.
The ISS Expedition 14 crew is ready for launch. Take off is planned for tomorrow September 19th, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a R-7 rocket carrying a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft.
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Anousheh Ansari story is pretty neat. She (the Ansari family?) sponsored the Ansari X-Prize, the $10 million cash award for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks, which was won by legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan in 2004. She also is a member of the X-Prize Foundation's Vision Circle, as well as its Board of Trustees.
Of Iranian descent,
Anousheh is in my opinion a prime example of the American dream – with dedication and hard work, regardless of nationality, race, sex or religion believes, you can realize your dream –
it is noted that having lost of money does help though :-). She earned degrees in electronics and computer engineering, and is currently working toward a master's degree in astronomy. She is a successful businesswoman and Chairwoman, a space traveler, and space ambassador. She earned the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Southwest Region, and well as many other awards. Not only she has the cash to pay for the ride (an expensive ticket), but she is an amazingly accomplished woman.
Anousheh Ansari keeps a blog.
The other 2 crew members are the mission's captain, Lopez-Alegria, a military aviator who was born in Spain (from Spanish father and American mother), and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin – both veteran aviators and spacemen. While Ansari will stay for around a week, the other two crew members will remain in the station for 6 months, where they will receive a number of Shuttle and Soyuz visits to continue building the station.
Good luck to the crew of the Expedition 14.
ceo
P.S. If you had $20 million dollars, would you go fly up into space? A very tempting idea indeed.