Aug 25, 2006 11:39 am US/Eastern
Woman Says She'll Be 1st Female Space Tourist
DALLAS (AP) ―
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Anousheh Ansari, American entrepreneur and new crew member of next manned mission to the International Space Station, Aug. 23, 2006.
AP
A Texas woman said Friday she will become the world's first female space tourist on Sept. 14, joining a Russian crew on a mission to the International Space Station.
Anousheh Ansari will join the crew of the Soyuz TMA-9, which will launch from Kazakhstan, according to the home-technology company, Prodea Systems Inc., run by Ansari's family.
"This is a dream that I've longed for since childhood," Ansari said. "I'm fascinated by the mystery and beauty of the cosmos. I deeply believe that the long-term survival of the human race will largely depend on our achievements in space exploration."
Russia's space agency announced Ansari's trip Tuesday. Officials said she would replace a Japanese businessman who failed a medical test.
Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria are also scheduled to be on the trip. Ansari is expected to return to Earth 10 days later with Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, who have been on the space station since April 1.
Ansari's company is sponsoring her trip. She is the chairwoman, and her husband is chief executive. The company helped fund a competition, renamed the Ansari X Prize, for the first privately financed manned spacecraft to make a suborbital flight.
According to the company, Ansari immigrated to the United States from Iran as a teenager and earned degrees in computer and electrical engineering.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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