Anousheh Ansari Becomes First Iranian In Space
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — Engineers mounted a Russian Soyuz rocket on top of its launch pad in the middle of the Kazakh steppe Saturday and began final preparations for blastoff to the international space station in two days.
Joining Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria on Monday will be the world's first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari. Ansari is an Iranian-American entrepreneur who is paying an estimated $20 million to be only the fourth amateur astronaut to visit the orbiting station. Read more.