Aug. 24, 2006 — Anousheh Ansari has dreamed long and hard about flying in space. But before working to secure her own ride, she tapped her family's fortune and connections to nurture flights for others.
This week, her good deed seems to have been rewarded.
Ansari on Tuesday was selected to replace aspiring space tourist Daisuke Enomoto, a Japanese-born Hong Kong businessman, to accompany the next space station crew to orbit. She's scheduled to leave Sept. 14 aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
As the prime sponsor of the $10 million X Prize, Ansari, 38, provided the financial lure for a handful of private firms to develop passenger-carrying suborbital spaceships.
Only one team has managed the feat so far, but the trio of flights made by aircraft designer Burt Rutan's vehicle, SpaceShipOne, was so stunningly successful that a commercial version was ordered even before the final, prize-winning flight.
Ansari made a reservation for launch on SpaceShipTwo, which is being developed by Rutan's Mojave, Calif., firm in partnership with Virgin Atlantic Airways' offshoot, Virgin Galactic. But the Iranian-born telecommunications entrepreneur didn't stop there.
With support from her husband and brother-in-law, she set up her own commercial space transportation firm in Dallas and partnered with the space tourism firm Space Adventures to build her own suborbital vessels for passenger service.
Her most important step required more time than money. She agreed to go to Russia and spend six months training for a possible orbital spaceflight at some unspecified time in the future.
When Enomoto was suddenly pulled from flight — Russia cited medical reasons — Ansari was in prime position to make the trip. In exchange for about $20 million, Ansari has snared the grand prize of space tourism: an eight-day stay at the International Space Station.
Because of the short notice, she'll have to do without the projects she planned had she had the time to prepare. She may have to eat the meals selected by Enomoto and her wardrobe may be a bit sparse. But none of that is likely to bother the Iranian-born Ansari in the least.
In Houston last month as Enomoto and the next station crew completed a final round of training, Ansari said she'd be just as happy with a five-minute suborbital flight as a relatively long-term stay on the station. "I care less about the experience of weightlessness than just seeing the planet from space," she said.
She'll get her chance. And if the mood strikes, perhaps she'll try out her space wings and take a flying cruise around the outpost.
She'll even have a special outfit to wear: Enomoto had already shipped up a costume modeled after his favorite cartoon action hero, pilot Char Aznable from the Gundam animation series.
