Slashdot Log In
X-Prize Funder Will Be First Female Tourist In Space
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Aug 26, 2006 04:11 AM
from the where-no-woman-has-gone-before dept.
from the where-no-woman-has-gone-before dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Reuters has the news that Anousheh Ansari, the funder of the X Prize, has been named as the first female tourist in space. She'll be going up in mid-September after a Japanese entrepeneur was deemed unfit for the trip." From the article: "Ansari, a 39-year-old chairwoman and co-founder of Prodea Systems, Inc., a digital home technology company, will be the world's fourth space tourist. 'Anousheh Ansari has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew,' Space Adventures, working in partnership with Russia's space agency Roskosmos to launch space tourists, said in a statement."
Related Stories
[+]
SpaceShipOne Captures the X Prize 896 comments
SpaceShipOne's second flight was a success, the craft successfully launching from mothership White Knight and returning safely about 20 minutes later. If the flight is certified to have reached the X Prize's target height (62.5 miles) before its safe return, it will win the $10 million purse, and more importantly attain the prestige of repeatably (if only technically) reaching space, on a budget embarrassingly smaller than NASA's. Today's flight was manned by 51-year-old test pilot Brian Binnie (rather than Mike Melvill, who piloted last week's trip), and according to spectators present at both launches seemed even smoother than last week's flight. The view from the sidelines was incredible. flapjack submits a link to CNN's coverage of the launch (which lists a claimed height attained of 368,000 feet), noting "Interesting to note that a majority of its funding ($20-$30 million) was put up by Microsoft's own, Paul Allen." See also the official X Prize site for continuing live coverage. Update: 10/04 17:05 GMT by T : I was able to attend the launch; read below for my short sketch of the event.
[+]
X-prize Award paid 97 comments
daveywest writes "According to the AP, "SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan accepted the Ansari X Prize money, along with a 150-pound trophy, as a chase plane flew over the ceremony in a field adjacent to the St. Louis Science Center.""
[+]
Anousheh Ansari Blogs From Space 67 comments
gevmage writes "Anousheh Ansari, founder of the X Prize and the fourth 'space tourist' to the International Space Station is going to be writing a blog during her several day visit, which began this last Wednesday. She says in the current entry that her submissions are batched and she doesn't have a live browser to read comments." From the post: "The next morning when I woke up, I was so excited I slipped out of my bag quickly and flew head down to the Descent Module and flipped around and flew right back up to the Habitation Compartment. As soon as I stopped I realized that what I did was not a good idea! I felt my internal organs doing a cha-cha inside my belly ... I stopped and tried to minimize my movements. I basically become a mummy from that point forward. I only did very small slow movements and even that would make me feel really sick ..."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Insert chauvanistic remark here (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
But then she'll keep hounding the pilot to stop and ask for directions when they get lost!
Gotta say it... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, it is impossible to have a smoke in space since the matches cannot be lit up.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answer s/970411a.html [nasa.gov]
The Question
(Submitted April 11, 1997)
My first graders want to know, How do astronauts go to the bathroom in space? I think the potty chair is in place. Is this correct?
The Answer
We have come up with a number of answers to your question. We will let you, as the professional teacher, decide which is appropriate for your classroom and what is best left to the teachers lounge.
I. The Official NASA pages:
A. There is a
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
- You're going to fast,
- Watch out for that satellite
- Meteors these days, No respect anymore
I kidd and I for one welcome our space visiting overlord. Everyone practice now - "Yes, Dear".
Tork-e Iroonieh (Score:2)
And Turks, too!
Hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
But you're right, the sexist spin of the article is both disgusting and archaic -- but easily explained. "Nth space tourist" doesn't get a headline; "First female space tourist" does. Given that these companies are trying to promote space tourism, they are likely to issue press releases with whatever hook will help get them published. "First space tourist with green eyes", etc. might not play in Peoria, but I bet we'll see "First grandma space tourist", "first cancer s
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed. I actually tried submitting this story to slashdot a few days ago, but I didn't emphasize the "first female space tourist" angle. This was rejected, along with a later variant. For the curious, here's the text of my submissions. The submissions also include links to some better articles, and Anousheh Ansari's official site. For those of you who are curious, the links also contain photos of Ansari:
X Prize Donor to Visit ISS
The BBC reports that engineer-entrepreneur (and Iranian-American) Anousheh Ansari will be the next self-funded visitor [bbc.co.uk] to the International Space Station. Anousheh Ansari [anoushehansari.com] is known for her multi-million dollar donation to the Ansari X Prize and her company's funding of plans to build private spaceports in Singapore and the UAE. She will launch to the ISS on a Russian rocket next month.
The BBC reports that engineer-entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari will be the next self-funded visitor [bbc.co.uk] to the International Space Station. Known for her multi-million dollar donation to the Ansari X Prize, she will launch to the ISS on a Russian rocket next month, fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. Ansari recently discussed [space.com] her hopes for Bigelow Aerospace -- which successfully launched their private space station prototype this summer -- to provide a better-suited destination for an increased number of commercial astronauts in the future.
Parent
mod parent up (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And I'd argue that the first "female space tourist" was actually Helen Sharman [msn.com], who flew to Mir after winning a British lottery. After all, people who win a trip to Bermuda
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Well, it was 1963, you have to make some allowances for the attitudes of the time. Eileen Collins was the first shuttle commander after the Columbia disaster and Ansari will be the 40somthingth woman in space.
KFG
Parent
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
In 1963 everything to do with space was A Big Deal.
At the time of Mercury and Gemini a number of women quietly tried out to be astronauts. They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space. The 20 year gap between Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride included U.S. president Nixon signing legislation mandating equal employment opportunity for all U.S. federal government agencies. There were no exceptions, so NASA was dragged kicking and screaming in to the 20th century.
...laura, who meets Shuttle height requirements but would need to lose some weight
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember.
They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space.
Bloody goddam shame, but then at the time it was a big deal that Jackie wore pants. There were less well known women who got assaulted for doing the same, as I was once assaulted for letting my hair grow long.
People are funny critters.
KFG
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space?
No. Women (especially Iranian women) have greater hurdles to their accomplishment. So the article highlights that she's done something unique by overcoming those extra hurdles. It is only sexist to highlight this if one presumes that these hurdles are innate and not imposed. Second, such a media event could encourage young girls to reject sterotypes and study science and business. This could help increase the pool of engi
To all you geeks knocking her (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't recall people saying any such thing when any of the male tourists went up. So why offer her congratulations just because she's female?
Oh and as for the comments. It's called having a sense of humour. You may want to look it up in a dictionary.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Would you go? (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally I'd sooner go for 100 trips on Virgin Galactic. Maybe when the ISS is complete it will be more tempting, but only when the Disney fun modules are complete and equipped. (Not to mention the italian restaurant module).
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
20million is cheap.
Name says it all (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
p.s. while my original post and this one were both tongue-in-cheek, I do have to say that I think whoever came up with the name "Universal Pictures" does deserve to be slapped around with a wet cluefish. Although I suppose I might need a time machine to do so at this
As a woman, I gotta say "Cool!" (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Gotta say... (Score:3, Funny)
Oooo (Score:2, Interesting)
This is not news. News for those that don't care.
photo caption contest (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Enomoto ain't going? (Score:3, Interesting)
It was only last week, but I'm surprised that I hadn't heard in the "usual places" (slashdot, digg) that Dice-K [dice-k.com] (check out that picture!) got grounded. Damn, now we don't get to make jokes about Otakus! In! Space! Rumor had it he was planning to wear some sort of costume [google.com] while up there.
Trivia: it was only revealed a few months ago (because that's now long it took Neil to realize it) that translator Neil Nadelman came up with that nickname.
Re: (Score:2)
Darn, that's gotta hurt, eh? All the money in the world can't buy... love, happiness, or a flight to the ISS.
Re: (Score:2)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5278190.stm [bbc.co.uk] :)
That article also has a picture showing that she is quite pretty on top of being smart and wealthy. If she weren't married, I think she'd be getting more marriage proposals from us geeks than congratulatory messages from Iranian women.
She Deserves This (Score:5, Interesting)
Even more entertaining, she's a lot of people's worst nightmare:
Godspeed Anoushe Ansari. I hope you have a great time.
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.space.com/news/060810_ansari_spaceprep. html [space.com]
Ansari (Score:3)
sort of the first tourist... (Score:2)
Attractive too... (Score:3, Funny)
What? No terrorist jokes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wow! What a hottie! (Score:2)
I wish I had 20 million to go to space with her, and be the first to have sex in space too!
Oh well... a guy can dream right?
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
From space?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
The parent was defending her, don't flame him. Why is it the internet always turns ordinary people into arseholes?
By the way, when you mean dollars not Microsoft, you don't have to put the letter M in front of it, unless Morroco, Mexico, Myanmar, Madagascar or somewhere else switches to dollars.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, just because other people were being jerks doesn't give you the right to be a jerk to someone who wasn't being one. I think you're just trying to rationalise now. Maybe some of them wern't attacking her, but were complaining because they think a space program should be used for science, not as a holiday for rich people. Frankly, I think that if Roskosmos is managing to fund itself through space tourism then its fair enough, given the amount of real science they also do, I mean its not as if NASA, ESA e
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be pissed.
It's also worth noting that her official website [anoushehansari.com] doesn't make any mention of her being the 'first female space tourist.' Instead, she describes herself as 'the fourth private space explorer to visit space, and the first astronaut of Iranian descent.'
Re: (Score:2)
That's close enough to 'first female space tourist' for me.
Wow. I lose at speed-reading.
She's not the sixth nor the first female tourist. (Score:2)
The only thing that makes the Space Adventures tourists different is that they paid their own way, which