First female ‘space tourist’?

EAA Aviation Center, Oshkosh, Wis. – May 16, 2006 – Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency reported that U.S. entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari is going to fly to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule in early 2007. That would make her the fifth “space tourist” and the first female one. But SPACE.com reports that the flight is far from official. So is she going or not? Why not ask her yourself when she is in Oshkosh as part of EAA’s Women Soar, a program that aims to excite young women about science, engineering and technology. The program will be held on July 23 and 24. Registration is only $10. Ansari, who along with her brother-in-law, Amil, provided the $10 million X-Prize awarded to the SpaceShipOne crew in 2004, is co-founder of Prodea, Inc., a venture capital firm that recently joined with Space Adventures to develop the Explorer spacecraft. Explorer is a sub orbital vehicle that will launch from at least two planned spaceports in the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. In addition, Ansari was listed in Fortune magazine's "40 Under 40" in 2001 and recognized by Working Woman magazine as the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence award. Itar-Tass also reported that Ansari is the understudy for Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, should he be unable to make his planned nine-day flight to the ISS this fall. But Stacey Tearne, a spokeswoman for Space Adventures, told SPACE.com that Ansari has expressed an interest in orbital flight and has visited Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center. But a report that she is a back up to Enomoto is inaccurate. Space Adventures has brokered ISS-bound flights for Enomoto, who is training to launch to the station with the Expedition 14 crew this September, as well the past missions of U.S. scientist and entrepreneur Gregory Olsen in 2005, South Africa’s Mark Shuttleworth in 2002, and U.S. businessman Dennis Tito in 2001. Each of those flights cost $20 million.

Anousheh Ansari (From X-Prize Foundation Web site.) Anousheh Ansari, co-founder Ansari X-Prize Foundation in front of SpaceShipOne, the first commercial spacecraft. The X-Prize Foundation offered a $10 million prize to jump-start the space tourism industry through competition among the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world The SpaceShipOne team won that prize in 2004. The X-Prize Foundation is currently working with NASA on a Lunar Challenge. Photo courtesy Shahrokh Mortazavi Learn More Anousheh Ansari Space.com Women Soar X PRIZE Foundation Scaled Composites Space Adventures Expedition 14 Lunar Lander Challenge

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