This is going to piss off Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On September 14th, the first Iranian astronaut will fly to the International Space Station. The thing is, the Iranian astronaut is not there as a representative of the Iranian government. She's a woman! And, she lives in the United States. She's paying her own way into space. Anousheh Ansari becomes the fourth space tourist, and first woman space tourist. You may recognize that surname; she was involved, along with her brother-in-law, in backing the Ansari X-Prize.I'm thinking there's all sorts of knickers in a knot over this in Teheran: "Good news, an Iranian is going to space! Uuhh... did we mention this Iranian is a woman? Living in America? And that the reason she is going is that she was successful at capitalism?" Pardon me while I laugh uproariously.
Update: Jack Kennedy of Spaceports has been following this story for a while and has lots more on Anousheh Ansari. He also pointed me towards her website; thanks Jack!
Also, welcome to the readers of Small Dead Animals. Thanks for the linky-love, Kate.
Technorati Tags: Space, Private Spaceflight, Ansari
1 comment:
Anousheh is much more than a wealthy Iranian-Amercian capitalist. She is on the cutting-edge of the 2nd Space Age funding the construction of a fleet of suborbital tourist-like spacecraft and building new spaceports around the globe. Let's cheer her on and simply be agahst with those who make light of her extreme feat.
Thank you for bringing her effort to the attention of your BLOG readers!
http://www.anoushehansari.com/
http://spaceports.blogspot.com
Post a Comment