Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian- born American, became the first female space tourist when she was launched into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
The spacecraft lifted off at 10:09 p.m. MDT Sunday from the Bai konur Cosmodrome in Kaz akhstan, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. Ansari and her two fellow crew members aboard the Soyuz, NASA’s Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin, are scheduled to reach the international space station Wednesday.
Although the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in June 1963, all three space tourists sent into orbit by Vienna, Va.-based Space Adventures Ltd. had been men, until now. The company charges a base price of $20 million for an orbital flight, according to its website.
“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,” Ansari said in a statement posted on the Space Adventures website.
