First Iranian woman in space

[Rasputin]

روزنامه آمريكايى نيويورك تايمز در گزارشى با اشاره به اينكه يك زن ايرانى قرار است هفته آينده به فضا سفر كند، نوشت كه وى نخستين زنى است كه به عنوان يك فضانورد غيرحرفهاى به فضا سفر خواهد كرد.

نيويورك تايمز روز سه شنبه نوشت:انوشه انصارى كه تا سن ۱۶سالگى در ايران زندگى ميكرده،گفته است فضا هميشه بخشى از زندگى او بوده و هماكنون روياهاى اين زن در حال تبديل شدن به حقيقت است و او قرار است به عنوان نخستين فضانورد زن غيرحرفهاى به فضا سفر كند.

"خانم انصارى قرار است روز دوشنبه به همراه دو فضانورد حرفهاى توسط يك فضاپيماى روسى از پايگاه فضايى بينالمللى در قزاقستان به فضا سفر كنند".

به نوشته نيويورك تايمز ، انصارى كه هماكنون يك شهروند آمريكايى و سرمايهدار است به عنوان چهارمين جستجوگر خصوصى در جهان به فضا سفر خواهد كرد. هرچند هزينه تمام شده اين سفر به فضا افشا نشده ولى گزارش شده شركت "ماجراجوييهاى فضايى" كه اين سفرها را برنامه ريزى ميكند براى هر نفر مبلغ ۲۰ميليون دلار دريافت ميكند كه بخش اعظم آن به برنامه فضايى روسيه اختصاص داده ميشود.

بنابر اين گزارش، خانم انصارى پيش از اين به عنوان جانشين "دايسوكه انوموتو" ( (Daisuke Enomotoتاجر ژاپنى بود و هنگامى كه او با يك بيمارى مواجه شد، نوبت به خانم انصارى رسيد.

به نوشته نيويورك تايمز، "دنيس تيتو" ( (Dennis Titoتاجر آمريكايى ، نخستين فضانورد غير حرفهاى بود كه در سال ۲۰۰۱به فضا سفر كرد. پس از او نيز "مارك شاتلوورت" ( (Mark Shuttleworthاز آفريقاى جنوبى به فضا رفت . "گريگورى اولسن" ( (Gregory Olsenنيز آخرين فردى غيرحرفهاى بوده كه در سال ۲۰۰۵به فضا سفر كرده است.

خانم انصارى كه روز سهشنبه ۴۰ساله شد در مصاحبه خود با ابراز تاسف از اينكه آقاى انوموتو اين فرصت را از دست داده، گفت: از اين فرصت براى ماجراجويى در فضا استفاده خواهد كرد.

اين درحالى است كه خانم انصارى تمايل زيادى دارد كه براى ديگر زنان كه ميخواهند كارهاى غيرمنتظره انجام دهند به عنوان يك الگو باشد.

نيويورك تايمز نوشت: خانم انصارى هنگام سفر به آمريكا ۱۶سال سن داشت.

او پس از دريافت مدرك ليسانس خود در رشته مهندسى الكترونيك و كامپيوتر از دانشگاه "جرج ميسون"، مدرك فوق ليسانس خود را در مهندسى الكترونيك از دانشگاه جرج واشنگتن ديافت كرد. هم اكنون نيز او در حال گرفتن فوق ليسانس ديگرى در رشته ستاره شناسى از دانشگاه "سوينبورن" در استراليا است.

بنابر اين گزارش، خانم انصارى پس از دانشگاه در بخش مهندسان شركت مخابراتى MCIمشغول به كار شد كه در آنجا با حميد انصارى همسر كنونى خود آشنا شد. او در سال ۱۹۹۳همسر خود را متقاعد كرد كه از شركت MCIخارج و خود يك شركت مخابراتى راه اندازى كنند.

آنها شركت "تلكام تكنولوژى" را راه اندازى كردند و پس از دريافت حق امتيازهاى بزرگ، توانستند اين شركت را صدها ميليون دلار به فروش برسانند.

خانواده انصارى پس از آن شركت Prodea Systemsرا كه يك شركت فن آورى ديجيتال و سرمايهگذارى در ايالت تگزاس است ، تاسيس كردند. اين شركت هزينه سفر فضايى خانم انصارى را پرداخت كرده است.

نيويورك تايمز نوشته است: خانم انصارى كه مدت شش ماه براى اين سفر آموزش ديده، سعى كرد در اين مدت علاوه بر زبانهاى فارسي، انگليسى و فرانسوي، به زبان روسى نيز مسلط شود.

او در عين حال واژه گردشگر فضايى را نميپسندند. به گفته او يك گردشگر تنها بليت تهيه ميكند و به هرجايى ميرود. به گفته انصاري، آنها شش ماه آموزش نميبينند كه شامل آموزش حفظ جان در آب و زمين است.

آنها همچنين طرز استفاده كامل از سيتسم فضا پيما را نيز ياد نمى گيرند.

انصارى اخيرا در يك مصاحبه خبرى در پاسخ به اين سئوال كه چرا روى لباس سفرش هم پرچم آمريكا و هم پرچم ايران را زده ، گفت:بخاطر اين است كه نشان بدهم دو كشور در زندگى من نقش داشتهاند.

نيويورك تايمز مينويسد: انصارى با اشاره به اينكه در ايران به دنيا آمده است و تا ۱۶سالگى در آن كشور زندگى كرده ميگويد من ريشههاى زيادى در ايران دارم و به مردم و فرهنگ اين كشور بسيار نزديك هستم.

وى افزوده كه پيامهاى تشويقى زيادى از سراسر جهان، از جمله ايران دريافت كرده است.

به گفته انصاري، ميخواهم به زنان و دختران نقاط دور افتاده جهان بگويم آنها بايد به چيزى كه ميخواهند اعتقاد داشته باشند و آن را دنبال كنند.

نيويورك تايمز افزوده است: باتوجه به اينكه او در آخرين دقايق براى سفر به فضا آماده شده، لذا قادر نخواهد بود در سفر هشت روزه خود به ايستگاه فضايي، برخى از كارهايى كه تمايل به انجام آنها را داشت انجام دهد.

وى گفته است:ميخواهم با سفر به فضا تصاويرى را كه در گذشته جمعآورى كردهبودم، شخصا مشاهده كنم و از آنجا به ايران كه در آنجا بزرگ شدهام نگاه كنم، جايى كه نخستين بار از آن به ستارهها نگاه كرده بودم.

[Rasputin]

Fame, fortune & false hopes

It always saddens me to see female members of the younger generation when they come across as airheads focusing on insignificant matters considering the opportunities they have to make a difference by all the learning opportunities available to them in the West.

Ms. Ahmadi thinks that she must be brilliant by tackling an old age issue which has been written about numerous times and does not really matter. That is the subject of Iranian TV stations being garbage (those outside Iran of course). We all know that they take advantage of a bunch of homesick, nostalgic people by milking them for advertisements that are insulting.

I must have missed something because I could not see why this young lady expects the TV personalities to be her role models (she can always choose Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan since they are stylish and do not use bad language!).

I am willing to bet she is from San Jose area which is like a different village. I just happened to attend Mehregan Conference the first week of September in San Diego and I am sure there were several hundred Iranians each day at every lecture. I was impressed at my fellow Iranians interactions as well as the lectures.

In one instance a younger speaker who has done a project on the "Iranian sexual revolution" spoke and painted a portrait of one big sexual orgy going on in Iran and the youth using their sexual adventures as a tool of rebellion!

For someone like me who is in touch with the youth and other ages in Iran and is always impressed at how many of the younger generation are fighting to make a difference and consider that rebellion, I found the "study" inaccurate portrait of an entire generation. One gentleman sounded hostile and stated that he wanted the speaker to provide proof because the lecture had disturbed him.

Most of the listeners simply thanked her and said they were saddened by learning about these issues. I asked the speaker if she had observed the young and educated who are rebelling in a positive way by making a difference and trying to gain more freedom for the right reason.

The mighty little PhD candidate (who came across as Ms. Knowit-all) rudely misunderstood my question (or did not even care to listen since she seemed to think her speech was perfect) said "they are all educated and are having sex"!

Instead of insulting her and being rude by making her see her shortcoming of being a horrible listener I simply shook my head. I even offered to help her fundraise for a TV show which will feature a panel of experts to provide education on sexually transmitted disease and that is despite the fact that the old and the really experienced middle-age dame in me knew damn well, this young lady's effort (for the most part) was about self-promotion (and selling her book) but as an Iranian female, I want to support her and if any members of that panel can save a young life form catching AIDS then I am all for supporting that cause.

Either this writer is not surrounded by highly educated and compassionate Iranians or she is isolated because you talk to anyone with average intelligence and they will tell you Mrs. Ansari is not a role model for having paid the $10 million to be on the list of people wanting to go to space. Those opinions are from people of all nationalities which I hear from.

That kind of money can empower many people to be a valuable member of the society and make a difference. Mrs. Ansari's ambitions to make a name for herself and boost her ego. God forbid she would quote an Iranian because we have shortage of valuable quotes from our brilliant pats and present people.

Isn't it ironic that the world famous and noteworthy people always quote Rumi, Khayyam or even Hafiz, yet your hero quotes Gandhi (who will turn in his grave if he found out his quote is being misused) and her idea of a change is to ignore all the problems the world, close her eyes and hand 10 million dollars so she can get her pictures all over everywhere and have all her relatives boast that little Anousheh traveled to space! That is no different than during the Crown Cannibal's time when monarchists boasted about trips to exclusive boutiques in Paris to buy custom-made clothes.

Ms. Ahmadi, you should be ashamed of admitting to watch the Iranian music videos which are worse than Hip Hop. They degrade women by showing overly made-up fat females with short s***ts performing cheap and seductive moves with Iranian tunes.

Look around because there are many Iranians who do not advertise and work to help better humanity every day and that ranges from paying to feed the homeless to providing money for treatment of a cancer patience. They give small amounts but give regularly. Those should be your role models and you should start by learning to take the lead in making a difference in your community and not be a typical Iranian who is great at complaining about every thing that is bad about our communities outside and never mention what is good about us.

I had my first Iranian cinema feature which took place yesterday and there were only two Iranians (I am doing this project for non-Iranians who understand the artistic values of movies) and I can not tell you how positive the attitudes were during my Q and A session as well as when I took the discussions outside. They had nothing but positive things to say about the Iranians they had come in contact with.

Stop complaining and try to be an example. Do not wait or expect others to do it for you. I started when I was 14 years old in a little port town in Iran without all the opportunities you have.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

انوشه انصاری اولين زن فضا گرد جهان در حليکه با مادرش خداحافظی می کند. خانم انصاری قرار است فردا عازم فضا شود.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Bio of Anousheh Ansari

Anousheh Ansari is scheduled to travel into space Monday aboard a Russian rocket, becoming the first woman space tourist.

Age: 40, born Sept. 12, 1966, in Mashhad, a city in northern Iran.

Education: Bachelor's degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University in Virginia; master's degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University.

Career: Co-founder and chief executive of telecom technologies inc., a maker of software for switching signals on phone networks in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, Texas. Company was sold in 2000 to Sonus Networks Inc., which says it paid $552.6 million in Sonus stock. Was a vice president at Sonus. Co-founded venture-capital and home-networking-technology firm Prodea Systems Inc. in Plano, Texas. Helped finance the Ansari X Prize in 2002, which paid $10 million to the operators of SpaceShipOne for being first to make two successful privately financed manned trips into space.

Family: Lives in Plano with husband, Hamid, who co-founded the Ansari companies. No children.

Quote: "People think they reach the height of their life at age 40. I'm hoping this is just the beginning of another hill that I will be climbing."

[Rasputin]

DALLAS - Since long before leaving her native Iran as a teenager in 1984, Anousheh Ansari stared at the stars and dreamed of traveling closer to them.

Now at age 40 - after an improbable journey that’s included learning English from scratch, earning an engineering degree and starting a telecommunications company that made her rich - this Dallas businesswoman will become the first female space tourist on a Soyuz spacecraft that lifts off tomorrow.

“I’ve always been fascinated with space and always wondered about the mysteries of space and wanted to be able to experience it firsthand,” the Texas woman said in a telephone interview from the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.



She says she is eager to see Iran from space - she hasn’t been back since emigrating to the United States - and hopes to inspire girls in her homeland to study science. Ansari says she’s received e-mail messages from many of them, although her flight has received scant attention in Iran. She is, after all, an American citizen.

Ansari and her family left Iran a few years after the Islamic revolution, in part because the opportunities for a young girl to study science were becoming limited there.

Her space ride will cost about $20 million. Ansari can afford it because she and her husband sold their company in 2000 for about $550 million of the buyer’s stock.

The extent of the couple’s wealth is not entirely clear, because the stock fell in value. That led shareholders of the takeover company to sue Anousheh Ansari and several others for alleged insider trading. The case is pending in a Massachusetts federal court.

This isn’t the first time she has dipped into her personal fortune to spend on space.

In 2002, she helped pay a $10 million award for the first successful privately financed manned trip into space. SpaceShipOne, backed by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, claimed the Ansari X Prize by making two flights to the edge of space more than 60 miles above California’s Mojave Desert.

Ansari hopes both the X Prize and her trip to the international space station will foster more interest in space travel - and lower prices if she helps spur more private companies to join the space-tourism race.

Her husband, Hamid, said she believes space travel will be critical one day, when humans deplete Earth’s resources and need to colonize space.

In March, she and Hamid and a space-travel broker who works with the Russian space agency went to Kazakhstan. From the VIP section, they watched the launch of a Soyuz rocket and capsule with a crew of three, including Russian Pavel Vinogradov and American Jeff Williams.

“Watching that million-pound ball of fire lifting into space, we grabbed each other’s arms,” said the broker, Eric Anderson of Space Adventures Ltd. “Seeing the emotion on her face, I could tell she was going to go.”

That month, Ansari began cosmonaut training in Russia and at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. But until late August, she was just a backup to a Japanese businessman. Then unspecified health problems forced him off the mission, and Ansari jumped into his place.

[Sepideh_UK]

Akhei
cheghadr naaz gerye kard. delam barash sukht
hope she'll be successfull!

[Rasputin]

Akhei
cheghadr naaz gerye kard. delam barash sukht
hope she'll be successfull!

Man hamash az NASA Tv daram donbalesh mikonam.beh omid-e Khoda,moafagh khahad shod :=)

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Space Adventures' Client, Anousheh Ansari, Successfully Launches

Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, announced today that Anousheh Ansari and her crew successfully launched aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the International Space Station. Mrs. Ansari joins the Expedition 14 crew which includes NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin for her 10-day mission.



"Exploring the cosmos has been a dream of mine that I have kept in my heart starting from a young age and I am very fortunate now to be able to actually experience it. I am very grateful to Space Adventures for providing me with this once in a lifetime opportunity. Without them, my dream would not be realized," said Anousheh Ansari, chairman and co-founder of Prodea Systems, Inc., a revolutionary digital home technology company. "Through this mission I want to bring awareness to the sciences and, specifically, space exploration. I also want to share the experience with as many as possible, so that people from all over the world will know how it feels to fly in the Earth's orbit."

Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company which organized the spaceflights for the world's first and only private space explorers: Dennis Tito, 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth and Gregory Olsen, Ph.D., said, "Today is an important milestone as Anousheh becomes the world's first private female space explorer to realize her dream of space travel. We, at Space Adventures, are proud to partner with such a courageous and determined individual. She is truly an inspiration to us all."

In preparation for her spaceflight with Space Adventures, Mrs. Ansari completed a cosmonaut training program at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in Star City, Russia. For more detailed information on the elements of her training and for updates on her mission, please visit http://www.spaceadventures.com/anousheh-ansari/updates.

Mrs. Ansari is a successful entrepreneur. She is co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, Inc. and a member of the X Prize Foundation's Vision Circle, as well as its Board of Trustees. She was also the title sponsor for the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million (USD) cash prize for the first non- governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. Prior to co-founding Prodea Systems, in 2006, Mrs. Ansari co-founded Telecom Technologies, Inc., where she served as the company's co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from The George Washington University. She is currently working toward a Master of Science degree in astronomy from Swinburne University.

Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with offices in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity and jet flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts. The company's advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert Gibson, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.


For more information, please visit http://www.spaceadventures.com.

[Rasputin]

The first woman space tourist has blasted off on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Iranian-born American Anousheh Ansari is expected to reach the ISS on Wednesday. James Rodgers reports from Moscow.

Watch it :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi/newsid_5350000/newsid_5356100/nb_wm_5356120.stm

[Rasputin]

ويژه برنامهي «آسمان شب» به مجموعه تصاوير مربوط به مراحل پرتاب فضاپيماي Soyuz اختصاص دارد.


به گزارش خبرنگار سرويس تلويزيون خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران(ايسنا) اين برنامه امشب ساعت 21 به پرواز اين فضاپيما و سفر «انوشه انصاري» نخستين فضانورد ايراني ميپردازد و در اين برنامه تعدادي از كارشناسان هوا و فضا و نجوم شركت خواهند كرد.


پوريا ناظمي (ژورناليست علمي)، بابك امين تفرشي (سردبير ماهنامه نجوم)، شهرام يزدانپناه از پژوهشكدهي هوا و فضا به عنوان كارشناس در اين برنامه حضور دارند.


برنامهي «آسمان شب» همچنين با مهندس احمد طالبزاده ـ رييس سازمان فضايي ايران ـ دربارهي ماموريت فضايي اين فضانورد ايراني به صورت تلفني گفتوگو ميكند.

[Rasputin]

سه سكنه ايستگاه فضايي بينالمللي در حالي از فضانوردان شاتل آتلانتيس خداحافظي كردند كه تا كمتر از 48 ساعت ديگر باز هم پذيراي مهمانان تازهاي از جمله نخستين فضانورد ايراني هستند.


به گزارش سرويس فنآوري خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران (ايسنا) جداشدن شاتل آتلانتيس از ايستگاه فضايي بينالمللي نويد دهنده هفتهاي پركار براي اين ايستگاه است چون با اتصال كپسول سايوز به آن، ضمن آنكه دو سكنه جديد و دايمي ايستگاه فضايي جايگزين سكنه قديمي آن ميشوند.


انوشه انصاري، نخستين فضانورد ايراني نيز كه حدود ساعت 7 و 39 بامداد روز دوشنبه - به وقت ايران - همراه با دو فضانورد روسي و آمريكايي راهي ايستگاه فضايي بينالمللي شده، روز چهارشنبه به ايستگاه وارد شده و در مدت هشت روز اقامت خود در فضا آزمايشاتي را انجام خواهد داد.


كپسول سايوز قرار است كه در اوايل روز چهارشنبه به ايستگاه فضايي بينالمللي ملحق شود و در همين حال در بعدظهر همان روز شاتل آتلانتيس در مركز فضايي كندي بر روي زمين خواهد نشست.

[Rasputin]

Lift-off for woman space tourist

Ms Ansari replaced a Japanese businessman on the trip


Soyuz launch
The first woman space tourist has blasted off on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
The mission is carrying Iranian-born businesswoman, Anousheh Ansari, along with a fresh crew for the International Space Station (ISS).

Ms Ansari, a 40-year-old US citizen, is thought to have paid at least $20m (£10.6m) for the mission.

Lift-off took place at 1010 local time (0410 GMT), with the Soyuz successfully entering orbit soon after.

The mission is expected to reach the ISS on Wednesday.

The Atlantis shuttle, which undocked from the ISS on Sunday to make way for the Soyuz capsule, is expected to land back on Earth on Wednesday.

The US space agency (Nasa) played down an incident on the station on Monday in which crewmembers reported smelling a foul odour.

'Fragile Earth'

Ms Ansari is accompanying Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and US astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who will join German astronaut Thomas Reiter on the station. They represent Expedition 14. Ms Ansari is the fourth space tourist after Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen.

Ahead of lift-off, Ms Ansari said she was an ambassador for attracting private investment into space programmes.


The Soyuz lifts off into a blue sky
Ms Ansari, who made her fortune in telecoms, also said the trip would put the planet into perspective.

"You'll see how small and how fragile the Earth is compared to the rest of the Universe. It will give us a better sense of responsibility."

On the ISS, Ms Ansari will carry out experiments on back pain for the European Space Agency (Esa).

Ms Ansari replaced Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who dropped out due to unspecified medical reasons.

Cosmonaut Tyurin said Ms Ansari had been "very professional" in her training.

Ms Ansari will return on 28 September with two other space station occupants.

The returning Atlantis crew installed two massive solar wings on the ISS.

The current space station crew reported an unpleasant odour on the platform on Monday. Nasa said the smell was an irritant, potassium hydroxide, found to be leaking from an oxygen vent.

The incident was not "life threatening", an agency spokeman added.