Tue, May 09, 2006
Scheduled To Fly To ISS In 2007
If everything goes to
plan, one of the driving forces behind the dawn of commercial
spaceflight will soon experience a trip into orbit herself.
According to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency, ANN's good friend,
Anousheh Ansari (shown below, in the dawn hours just before
the Ansari X Prize was won, on October 4th, 2005) -- who,
along with her brother-in-law Amil provided the $10 million X-Prize
awarded to the SpaceShipOne crew in 2004 -- is scheduled to fly to
the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule in
early 2007, as the fifth so-called "space tourist."
Ansari will also be the first woman to fly into space as part of
the joint-venture program between the Russian Space Agency
Roskosmos and Space Adventures, in which participants pay $20
million for a ride into orbit -- which, in a way, is a deal,
as Russia charges NASA $21.8 million for a Soyuz seat for one of
its astronauts.
In fact, Ansari -- who, when not offering vast cash prizes for
trailblazing aerospace pioneers, is the chief executive of Telecom
Technologies -- may get into space even sooner than that. Forbes
reports she is the understudy for Japanese businessman Daisuke
Enomoto, should he be unable to make his planned nine-day flight to
the station in the fall of 2006.
Ansari is currently undergoing training for her trip at Russia's
Gagarin cosmonaut training center, after being declared fit for
spaceflight in February.
ANN wishes Anousheh an amazing journey... and can't wait to hear
of her adventure.
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