by Playfuls Staff |
18th September 2006
The first female tourist in space began her endeavor on Monday morning, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz space shuttle has already reached its orbit carrying Anuseh Anasari, an American woman born 40 years ago in Iran.[more]
She is being accompanied by two professional astronauts, an American and a Russian. The Soyuz capsule shall make its junction with the International Space Station on Wednesday and it is programmed for return on September 28.
Since the flight of Valentina Tereshkova in 1963, who was the first female astronaut in the Soviet era, many women have ventured into space, but none of them had the chance of doing that just for fun. Anusari is the first woman who reaches Earth’s orbit as a tourist.
In return, the American millionaire “donated” $20 million to the Russian space program.
She also replaced a Japanese millionaire who got “thrown out” of the Russian preparations for Soyuz due to some health problems. At blast off, Anuseh was accompanied by her husband, mother, sister and aunt. Her mother declared that she wanted to travel to space “since she was born”.
Born in Iran, Anuseh emigrated to the US at the age of 16, but her favorite town is Paris. She also declared that she will take an Iranian flag with her into the orbit, but she will not present it during televised transmissions.
On the same Soyuz capsule are American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tiulin. Their mission is to replace the ISS crew, which is there since April.
The three astronauts have watched before launch a Soviet movie from the ’70, because it is considered to bring luck to the crew. The reason is that the Soviet (and then Russian) space program has not registered a single deadly accident since it has moved to Baikonur.
A communications engineer, Anasari will not only take pictures of Earth she will also conduct two experiments for the European Space Agency and different educational projects. She will also publish a blog concerning her “visit” to space.
