Space Adventures, the world's leading space experiences company exclusively represented in the UK by Bristol based operator WildWings, announced today that Anousheh Ansari and her crew successfully launched aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan en route to the International Space Station. Mrs. Ansari joins the Expedition 14 crew that includes NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin for her 10-day mission.
“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,” said Anousheh Ansari, a successful entrepreneur and sponsor for the Ansari X Prize, a US$10 million cash prize for the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. “Through this mission I want to bring awareness to the sciences and, specifically, space exploration. I also want to share the experience with as many as possible, so that people from all over the world will know how it feels to fly in the Earth’s orbit.”
Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures, the company which organized the spaceflights for the world's first and only private space explorers: Dennis Tito, 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth and Gregory Olsen, said, “Today is an important milestone as Anousheh becomes the world’s first private female space explorer to realize her dream of space travel. She is truly an inspiration to us all.” As Space Adventures’ exclusive representative in the UK, WildWings are challenged with finding the first British space tourist to join this elite group.
Space Adventures is still the only company to have successfully launched private explorers to space. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity and jet flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts.
Space Adventures’ advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert Gibson, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.
Space Adventures’ advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Robert Gibson, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev.
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