For U.S.
entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari,
failure to reach space is not an option.
With her
eyes on a possible 2008 flight to the International Space
Station (ISS), Ansari has spent the last
few months training as a backup spaceflyer for Japanese
businessman Daisuke Enomoto, who is paying
$20 million for a 10-day roundtrip to the orbital laboratory currently set to launch on Sept. 14.
"It's been
a wonderful experience for me," Ansari told reporters
at NASA's Johnson Space Center during a brief break in flight training last
month. "I know I'm a backup and am not going to be flying, but the whole
learning experience, learning about the program, getting to know some of the
astronauts and cosmonauts that could fly...it's very
wonderful."
Enomoto's
trip - and Ansari's backup training
- were brokered by the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures
under an agreement with Russia's Federal Space Agency. Space Adventures is
currently the only firm offering orbital seats for paying customers and has
arranged for three
previous space tourists to reach the ISS.
A
history with space
Ansari,
38, is in line to become the world's first female space tourist, but takes
issue with what she sees as an over-simplistic label to a complicated - yet
exciting - experience.
"Tourists
are people who just buy a ticket and then they go," Ansari
said, adding that through her training she's learned that Russia's Soyuz
vehicle is an extremely reliable - if cramped - spacecraft. "They don't train
for six months and try to learn every system."
But even
without her six months of Soyuz training, Ansari is
no stranger to human spaceflight.
Ansari's
family made a multimillion-dollar contribution to back the Ansari X Prize, a $10 million suborbital
competition for privately-developed, reusable spacecraft. A team led by veteran
aerospace designer Burt Rutan and backed by millionaire Paul Allen won the
contest in 2004 when their piloted SpaceShipOne
vehicle launched into suborbital
space twice
in two weeks.
Together
with her husband Hamid and brother-in-law Amir, Ansari also co-founded the
Dallas-based company Prodea to develop the Explorer line of air-launched suborbital vehicles under a partnership
with Space Adventures.
Explorer
spaceport plans in the United
Arab Emirates and Singapore
are moving ahead in anticipation of the spacecraft's development.
"Something
I like to concentrate on is to bring more awareness about the importance of the
space program because, right now, the general public is so disassociated from
[it] and that's a shame," Ansari said. "I think it's
important for our future."
Ansari
said she leaped at the chance when Space Adventures officials contacted her
asking whether she'd be interested in serving as Enomoto's
backup. But while she would welcome the spaceflight opportunity in the
off-chance Enomoto is unable to fly next month, Ansari would rather wait for her own dedicated mission.
"I'm mentally prepared to do that and it would be a great
personal experience," Ansari said of fulfilling her
responsibilities as backup. "But for my flight I have a lot of projects that
I'd like to do, and if I fly now that means that none of those projects would
be there.
"If I'm
presented with the opportunity to go, I would definitely take it," Ansari said, adding that she has seats reserved on Rutan's SpaceShipTwo vehicle under development for British
billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceliner business. "I have a seat reserved on his
plane...whoever flies first."
Determined
for spaceflight
While Ansari is eagerly working toward a spaceflight of her own,
she will have to wait in line.
Earlier
this year, U.S. businessman and former Microsoft software developer Charles
Simonyi signed
a contract with Russian space officials to fly toward the ISS in Spring 2007, which would be on the next Soyuz to fly after Enomoto launches with the ISS Expedition
14 crew.
"I'll wait
when my turn comes," Ansari said.
Malaysia is
also hoping
to launch its first astronaut aboard a Russian spacecraft in 2007, and any
of those plans could be dependent on whether NASA or the European
Space Agency will require Soyuz seats to transfer their astronauts to and from
the ISS - a variable that hinges on the frequency
of space shuttle visits to the orbital platform.
"One good
thing is, maybe, I will generate some positive media about the Middle East with
everything going on," said Ansari, who was born in Iran.
"I've gotten so many calls and e-mails and mail, especially from women in Iran,
and other Middle Eastern countries that are excited that someone from [there]
gets to go up...and a woman!"
Meanwhile, Ansari said she takes heart in advancements like the recent
launch
of Genesis-1
- a prototype for inflatable space structures that could lead to orbital hotels
or other habitats - by Bigelow
Aerospace of Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Right now,
that's the only other potential destination in the future for commercial space travelers
to go to," Ansari said of the potential orbital
habitats under development by Bigelow Aerospace. "If you increase the number of
people you want to go...the ISS won't be an ideal location. I'm happy to see
somebody building a location that we can fly to."
But whether
she rides a Soyuz to the ISS, an Explorer vehicle, a version of SpaceShipTwo or some other spacecraft,
Ansari is confident she'll slip the bonds of Earth eventually.
"Is there
another way to get to space," Ansari asked with a
smile. "Anyway you can fly me, I'll go."
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