First Iranian woman in space

[Rasputin]

ONE STEP FOR ANOUSHEH ANSARI

On September 29th, our favorite space traveler, Anousheh Ansari returned home safely from space. Her crew landed in the northern Kazakhstan, where she was greeted by her husband Hamid and showered with cheers, applause, flowers, and best of all, a warm reception from the Kazakh nation. While Anousheh looked happy to be back and exhausted from the travel, she has not carved her place in history. She is the first Iranian to travel into space and has fans all over the world. Her journey was a difficult one, and she really gives true meaning to the expression 'Khasteh Nabashid'. On a side note, Anousheh has also done some positive PR for the Kazakh government, who has been trying to improve their image ever since Borat and Ali G. (aka Sasha Baron Cohen) made fun of the way women are treated there. Anousheh's warm welcome dispells all of that, and in true form, she has put the Kazakh national costume on television. Hey - that's one great step for Kazakhstan!

[Rasputin]

Pictures of Anousheh Ansari's journey into space

http://www.anoushehansari.com/slideshow/slideshow.html

[soheil2006]

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[soheil2006]

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[Rasputin]

Video: Anoosheh Ansari on Oprah

[Rasputin]

Anousheh's dream comes true

I read a lot of emails opining on Anousheh Ansaris self-funded $20-million expedition to outer space, as the first female Space Tourist, realizing her long held childhood dream.

At first, I like everyone watched incredulously, and I will admit, rather annoyingly with a good dose of jealousy to boot, at what appeared to be nothing more than a spoilt rich person's exercise in excess, an awful waste of an awful lot of money.

As Anousheh blogged her way across my day from the outer sky, sliding past the horizons of my web browser and the earth, telling me how this was so inspiring or that was so incredible, describing every daily detail of every meal inside her clean white habitat, I could at first only think of the many other things one could do with the money being spent on this glorified roller coaster ride.

And I had plenty of company in this misery. People everywhere would talk about it and there was a relatively high amount of disdain buzz about her as the trip proceeded and the days in space went on and on and on. The BillionDollarYouTube.com video messages didn't help things, as we watched Anousheh grinning and spinning her apple in space, while attempting to describe how she could not describe her "feelings".

I could feel the anger in my heart building.

But I am old enough to know that when these kinds of feelings come up, it is probably prudent to not act, (or write) on them right away, and to wait to see if time (and usually further discussions with Cameron), will allow a more focused and reasonable understanding to take hold. I think they call it Perspective.

So, just as I promised Cameron I would, I watched Anousheh speak on the Oprah Winfrey show about her experience in space, and as always happens with Oprah and often with Cameron's advice, I realized a few things.

I think I understand Anousheh a bit better now, maybe from looking into her eyes, via the TV screen at least. This is not an obvious bratty-self-serving rich person. She appears to be quite decent actually, and the smug arrogance I perceived at the beginning of this whole issue, was replaced by an understanding that this was in fact something she really really really really really wanted to do since very early in her life. And that is perfectly fine. Your money, your choice Baby.

This being said, it also explained the seemingly equally questionable x-prize/ansari prize project, in which Anousheh challenged a commercial venture to create the first non-NASA attempt at space travel. The multi-million dollar prize was ultimately won by a couple of other millionaires who spent more to win the prize, than the actual prize amount. Again, your money, your call.

Granted, one would have wished for the perfect Cinderella ending instead, the one where the starving engineer emerged victorious after years in his heavily mortgaged garage, enduring the unending ridicule of his neighbors and friends who scoffed at his crazy notion to one day "Show everyone that a commercially private venture really could make it to space!" But alas this was not to be, and once again the masters and commanders of global markets won instead. Damn the Man!

But somehow, the whole idea of commercialized space travel, put into a bit more perspective now, does not sound that crazy anymore.

Maybe that is what pioneers do. Maybe pioneers do that crazy thing that everyone thinks is crazy, ridiculous even, until they actually do it, and then it doesn't sound so crazy anymore. Maybe, that is what they call vision. Whatever it is, I don't think I have ever had one, or at least not since I stopped smoking weed. And this may be what drove me a bit off the deep end... not the not smoking weed... but listening to Anousheh's incessant inspirational expressions during her trip.

I still hold that, in my opinion, you can certainly do much more than this, with 20 million. And to me the whole "So What?" aspect of commercial space travel, with all the problems in Iran and incidentally here on earth to solve, is still largely up for debate. But the usual list of things that anyone of us would make, that could be addressed with this fortune such as, children's health research, orphanage funding, sponsoring the arts, cultural outreach programs, world hunger, an unlimited litany of philanthropically more worthwhile activities, are all too painfully obvious. Too painful to ignore as we watch Anousheh wave to us from BillionDollarBoobTube.com.

Maybe it is the obviousness of these lists of other things that raised the ire of so many, including myself on what appeared initially to be misplaced priorities.

But watching her on Oprah, talk about her childhood dream, I could only see the child in Anousheh's eyes as she spoke, clearly she was a changed person. Maybe for good. Maybe for the good of us all.

The one thing that struck me as most poignant during her interview, was her observation on what it felt like, looking down on the earth, that "It was an amazing moment, and you couldn't see any borders, you couldn't see any signs of wars, none of those troubles that you hear about on the news everyday. It was just pure peace and beauty."

Maybe now that she has literally gained a different perspective on the world, and has had a first hand impression of how beautiful the world can become, she can see herself as we see her. That she can now use her newfound fame, and more than ample fortune, to speak smartly out against oppression and stupidity, and to actively do those things that only people like her can do, for the world she has seen anew. Those things which most people are not fortunate or notorious enough to do.

One thing we all know for certain is that through luck, fate, or destiny, Anousheh has the grace, courage and will for a literally godlike ascension to the heavens. Let us hope and pray that she has also gained insight that compassion and responsible stewardship comes with being a supernatural being.

Welcome back Anousheh!

[nedamm]

looooooooool she is smart

[Hamidjan]

she is smart? maybe. but I believe it more if you've said "she is rich"

[persiano]

oh oh

[merwais]

nice

great

i have see this news on Television

[donsaeid]

Beautiful!

She made it! we all can! success just needs determetion!!!

[Rasputin]

Video: Ansari realized life-long dream of flying over every starving person on earth.

http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=76652

[Rasputin]

You can watch her here : http://www.tapesh.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7033

:=)

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Money doesn't buy you brains

Fariba Moghadam is right: "Beh jorme sangdeli". It is refreshing to see that other intelligent Iranian women (or men) also see that Anousheh Ansari is a heartless and selfish Iranian who took pride in showing the TV viewers how she pissed in the air and how she put her lipstick on while people are being massacred in Darfor and women are being beaten or dying of poverty.

Many of us agree with you and believe she should have given the money to worthy causes. Look at Mohammed Yunis the winner of the Nobel for Peace. This man is changing generations to come, by lending small sums to women to start business to support their families and the results are amazing.

I know there are many wonderful Iranian men and women in Iran who do similar things by coaching the underprivileged, proving them small loans to buy sewing machines to start making a living through sewing clothes or paying for one's education and these are what change a poor family to a proud one with means to lift themselves up from poverty and send their kids to school, etc.

It is amazing that some Iranian housewives who are uneducated and being supported by the husband think the rest of us are jealous of Ansari. I have no idea why we would be jealous because she is not prettier or smarter or even more attractive than most of us. As for her money, we are not jealous because we know she comes from a family with money. We want all our fellow Iranians to be well off but we also hope that they have hearts to use their excess money to make a difference in the world.

I have a bet with my friends (and I am right 99% of the time) that Ansari was very unattractive and boring as a teen-ager she still seems quite boring and lacks wit and charm when speaking) and was often ignored by people so she became selfish and bitter so she decided somehow she would get back at all those who ignored her and thought she would not amount to much. She wanted to be famous and since she had no real talent as an artist, humanitarian, scientist or anything else for that matter to capture attention, she figured she will buy fame even if it is for a short while.

I do not fret that much because there are beautiful Iranians who do care and do give to worthy causes and they simply do not wish to be known or praised. I know Iranians who pay for entire orphanage in Iran and one of my friends owns apartments in Tehran and the rent collected goes to poor people.

There are many wonderful Iranians working to better the lives of underprivileged in Iran as well as outside Iran. Let little Anousheh have her purchased 15 minutes of fame until she can buy her way to another venture. Hopefully this time she will be coached by some educated people to say some profound words to impress people instead of embarrassing herself by coming across as ignorant and superficial.

I am so embarrassed because most of my American friends have asked me why this "Iranian lady" had to show how she relieved herself in the air, show the tube and how she put it in the toilet tank! Also, she made sure the world knew how she put her lip gloss on!? If she had Paris Hilton to compare lip-gloss colors, it would have been quite perfect. The sarcastic old dame (me) has been answering: Let's face it, in that high altitude being tossed around pretty much causes shit and everything else affects the brain, so it was not her fault for making such asinine remarks instead of coming up with some intelligent bullshit about how she had an out of body experience!

Oh well, money can't buy you everything especially brain power and eloquence -- or charisma for that matter.