Anousheh Ansari

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Lore & Background

Anousheh Ansari was born Anousheh Raissyan in Mashhad, Iran, and moved to Tehran shortly afterward. When she was six, her parents divorced. At age seven, she attended a French Catholic school called Jeanne d'Arc in Tehran, where half the day was taught in Farsi and the other half in French. She witnessed the Iranian Revolution in 1979, recalling 'hearing gun shots, screaming, people being killed, and explosions.' During the Iran-Iraq War, she took shelter in her apartment building's basement, where as the eldest child she narrated stories to comfort the others. She immigrated to the United States in 1984 as a teenager and attended Lake Braddock High School in Northern Virginia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason University and a master's degree at George Washington University. Apart from Persian, she is fluent in English and French and acquired working knowledge of Russian for her spaceflight. After graduation, she worked at MCI, where she met her future husband Hamid Ansari; they married in 1991. In 1993, she persuaded her husband and brother-in-law Amir Ansari to co-found Telecom Technologies Inc. using their savings and retirement accounts. The company was acquired by Sonus Networks in 2001 in a stock-for-stock transaction for 10.8 million shares, and Ansari became a vice president of Sonus and general manager of its INtelligentIP division. In 2006, she co-founded Prodea Systems, becoming its chairwoman and CEO. Ansari trained as a backup for Daisuke Enomoto for a Soyuz flight to the ISS through Space Adventures. On August 21, 2006, Enomoto was medically disqualified, and the next day Ansari was elevated to prime crew. She launched on Soyuz TMA-9 on September 18, 2006, with commander Mikhail Tyurin and flight engineer Michael Lopez-Alegria, docking with the ISS on September 20. She landed safely aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on September 29, 2006, with Jeffrey Williams and Pavel Vinogradov. During her nine-day stay, she conducted four experiments for the European Space Agency on anemia, back pain, space radiation, and microbes. She prefers the title 'spaceflight participant' over 'space tourist.'

Reader's Guide

Anousheh Ansari's significance lies in her role as the fourth overall self-funded space tourist and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. As CEO of XPRIZE Foundation, she leads the organization whose first venture—the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE—was sponsored by her family in 1994. She is a member of the X PRIZE Foundation's Vision Circle and Board of Trustees. Along with her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, she made a multimillion-dollar contribution to the foundation on May 5, 2004, the 43rd anniversary of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital flight, leading to the renaming of the Ansari X PRIZE. The Ansari family also invested in a partnership with Space Adventures and the Russian Federal Space Agency to create a fleet of suborbital vehicles called the Space Adventures Explorer. Ansari has been a spokesperson for the 'privatization of space,' enabling commercially viable companies to independently send equipment and people into space. Asked what she hoped to achieve, she said: 'I hope to inspire everyone—especially young people, women, and young girls all over the world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with the same opportunities as men—not to give up their dreams and to pursue them.' Her memoir My Dream of Stars, co-written with Homer Hickam, was published in 2010. Despite controversy over her intention to wear an Iranian flag on her spacesuit, she wore the Iranian flag colors instead and kept the Iranian flag on her official flight patch, stating no political message was intended.

Did You Know?

• Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space tourist and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station.
• She and her family sponsored XPRIZE's first venture in 1994: the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE.
• Ansari trained as a backup for Daisuke Enomoto; when he was medically disqualified on August 21, 2006, she was elevated to prime crew the next day.
• During her nine-day stay on the ISS, she conducted four experiments for the European Space Agency, including research on anemia and space radiation.
• The day before her launch, she was interviewed on Iran national television for the astronomy show Night's Sky, where hosts thanked her on behalf of Iranians.

From Balcony to Boardroom: A Childhood Forged in Turmoil

Born Anousheh Raissyan in Mashhad, Iran, she and her parents moved to Tehran shortly afterward. When Ansari was six years old, her parents divorced. At age six, she would visit her grandparents and sleep overnight on the balcony, as there was no air conditioning, gazing at the night sky with curiosity about space. In Tehran at age seven, she attended a French Catholic school called Jeanne d'Arc, with half the day taught in Farsi and the other half in French. She witnessed the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and recalls memories of 'hearing gun shots, screaming, people being killed, and explosions.' During the Iran-Iraq War, she took shelter in the basement of her apartment building, where as the eldest child she narrated stories to comfort the younger ones, distracting them from the noise of bombs. She immigrated to the United States in 1984 as a teenager and attended Lake Braddock High School in Northern Virginia. She earned a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason University and a master's degree at George Washington University. Apart from her native Persian, she is fluent in English and French and acquired working knowledge of Russian for her spaceflight.

Building Empires in Telecom and Beyond

After graduation, Ansari began work at MCI, where she met her future husband Hamid Ansari; they married in 1991. In 1993, she persuaded her husband and her brother-in-law Amir Ansari to co-found Telecom Technologies Inc., using their savings and corporate retirement accounts, as deregulation happened in the US telecommunications industry. The company was a supplier of softswitch technology that enabled telecom 'service providers to enhance system performance, lower operating costs and furnish new revenue opportunities.' Headquartered in Richardson, Texas, the company offered products integrating existing telecom networks with next-generation networks via software switch technology. Telecom Technologies was acquired by Sonus Networks in 2001 in a stock-for-stock transaction for 10.8 million shares of Sonus stock. Ansari became 'a vice president of Sonus and general manager of Sonus' new INtelligentIP division.' In 2006, she co-founded Prodea Systems, becoming its chairwoman and CEO. Prodea is a technology and services management company, privately held by the Ansari family with development centers in Richardson, Texas, and Silicon Valley. Under her leadership, Prodea earned recognition as one of Inc. Magazine's 500 fastest-growing companies and Deloitte & Touche's Fast 500 technology companies.

The Flight That Changed Everything

Ansari has expressed that she does not consider herself a 'space tourist' and prefers the title 'spaceflight participant.' She trained as a backup for Daisuke Enomoto for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station through Space Adventures, Ltd. On August 21, 2006, Enomoto was medically disqualified from flying the Soyuz TMA-9 mission, and the next day Ansari was elevated to the prime crew. She lifted off on Soyuz TMA-9 with commander Mikhail Tyurin and flight engineer Michael Lopez-Alegria at 04:59 UTC on Monday, September 18, 2006, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. She became the fourth (and first female) space tourist. Her contract did not allow disclosure of the amount paid, but previous space tourists have paid more than 20 million US$. The spacecraft docked with the ISS on Wednesday, September 20, 2006, at 05:21 UTC. She landed safely aboard Soyuz TMA-8 on September 29, 2006, at 01:13 UTC on the steppes of Kazakhstan (90 kilometers north of Arkalyk) with U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. She was given red roses from an unidentified official and a kiss from her husband Hamid. The day before her departure, she was interviewed on Iran national television for the astronomy show Night's Sky; the hosts wished her success and thanked her on behalf of Iranians. During her nine-day stay on the ISS, she conducted four experiments for the European Space Agency: researching mechanisms behind anemia, how changes in muscles influence lower back pain, consequences of space radiation on crew members, and different species of microbes on the space station.

Inspiring the Next Generation and Reshaping Space

Ansari is a member of the X PRIZE Foundation's Vision Circle and Board of Trustees. Along with her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, she made a multimillion-dollar contribution to the X PRIZE foundation on May 5, 2004, the 43rd anniversary of Alan Shepard's sub-orbital spaceflight. The X PRIZE officially renamed the Ansari X PRIZE to honor their donation. Ansari is a spokesperson for the 'privatization of space,' enabling commercially viable companies to government-independently send equipment and people into space. The Ansari family also invested in a partnership with Space Adventures, Ltd. and the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation to create a fleet of suborbital spaceflight vehicles (the Space Adventures Explorer) for global commercial use. Asked what she hoped to achieve on her spaceflight, Ansari said: 'I hope to inspire everyone—especially young people, women, and young girls all over the world, and in Middle Eastern countries that do not provide women with the same opportunities as men—not to give up their dreams and to pursue them... It may seem impossible to them at times. But I believe they can realize their dreams if they keep it in their hearts, nurture it, and look for opportunities and make those opportunities happen.' Her memoir My Dream of Stars, co-written with American engineer Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010. Regarding the Iranian flag controversy, Ansari intended to wear the U.S. flag on her spacesuit alongside a politically neutral version of the Iranian flag. At the insistence of NASA and Russian officials, she did not wear the Iranian flag officially but wore the Iranian flag colors instead and kept the Iranian flag on her official flight patch. She and her husband said no political message was intended.