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Anousheh Ansari
has successfully arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after launching onboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the
Baikonur Cosmodrome on 18 September 2006.
The spacecraft docked to the ISS at 1:21 a.m. (EDT) with Mrs. Ansari and Expedition 14 commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer
Mikhail Tyurin aboard. They were greeted at 4:34 a.m. (EDT) by NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter when the hatch was opened.
After Mrs. Ansari’s eight-day stay aboard the space station, she will return to Earth on
28 Septemberwith the Expedition 13 crew members Williams and Vinogradov.
Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures,
the company which organized spaceflights for the world's first and only private
space explorers: Dennis Tito, 'First African in Space' Mark Shuttleworth and Gregory Olsen, Ph.D., said, “Anousheh is enjoying her spaceflight
and looks forward to the time she will spend aboard the space station. Since the time of her launch, Space Adventures has been overwhelmed
with inquiries from around the world with interest in future orbital flights. We plan to send many more individuals to space in our continued effort
in opening the final frontier.”
In preparation for her spaceflight with Space Adventures, Mrs. Ansari completed a cosmonaut training program at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut
Training Center located in Star City, Russia.
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