US and Iranian flags to go into space with female tourist

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Wednesday August 30, 2006

Moscow- Flags of the United States and Iran will fly together to the International Space Station in mid-September on the sleeves of Anousheh Ansari, the world's first female space tourist said Wednesday. The 39-year-old businesswoman spent the first 16 years of her life in Tehran before emigrating to the US, and will make a ten-day mission to the ISS with a new crew.

"That's why both countries will be there together," she said at the Gagarin cosmonaut training facility by Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.

But space officials said hold-ups in the launch of the US shuttle Atlantis could bring a four-day postponement to her scheduled departure on a Soyuz rocket on September 14.

"If the shuttle launches between September 6 to 8 then the Soyuz will fly on September 18," said Nikolai Sevastyanov, head of the Energia space company that manages operations on the ISS for Russia.

This was the last launch date for the Soyuz as the station's outgoing crew would otherwise have to risk a night landing, he said.

Due to bring equipment and supplies to the ISS, the Atlantis was unable to take off from Florida Sunday as the Tropical Storm Ernesto lashed the area.

Paying a reported 21.5 million US dollars for the trip, Ansari will fly to the orbiter with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria.

They will join German astronaut Thomas Reiter to form the station's new permanent crew. The outgoing crew of astronaut Jeffrey Williams and cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov will return to earth with the businesswoman on September 24, according to the original schedule.

Ansari was unexpectedly bumped onto the ISS mission when scheduled Japanese space tourist Daisuke Enomoto failed a pre-flight medical in August.

She will be the first woman to make a commercial space flight, following American Dennis Tito's trip to the ISS in 2001, South African Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and American Gregory Olsen in 2005.

Her eight-day programme on the station will include scientific experiments in medicine, microbiology and other areas, Energia's Sevastyanov said.

Ansari, who made her fortune in telecom technologies, harboured a dream to fly into space since childhood and hopes her journey will inspire women and girls to pursue their ambitions.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur