Tehran-born Anousheh Ansari will replace Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto who is supposed to head for the International Space station on September 14. Enomoto failed a medical test and thus was rendered unfit for the space trip. Anousheh Ansari is the first woman space tourist and is the fourth tourist to travel to the ISS.

Ansari paid more than $20 million just to travel for ten days to the International Space Station onboard the Russian Soyuz rocket. She will be accompanied by US-Russian crew to the ISS and will be coming back with the crew that has already stayed there for 6 months. She is now preparing for her trip at the Cosmonaut Training Center. Asked how she feels about the trip, Ansari said she’s a bit nervous but is very excited and happy.

This 38-year old engineer and co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies Inc. is known for her multi-million contribution to the X-Prize Foundation, which offered millions of dollars to the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft twice in 2 weeks. She is born in Tehran, Iran and migrated to the US when she was 14.

By Khristine