X-Prize Funder Will Be First Female Tourist In Space

An anonymous reader writes "Reuters has the news that Anousheh Ansari, the funder of the X Prize, has been named as the first female tourist in space. She'll be going up in mid-September after a Japanese entrepeneur was deemed unfit for the trip." From the article: "Ansari, a 39-year-old chairwoman and co-founder of Prodea Systems, Inc., a digital home technology company, will be the world's fourth space tourist. 'Anousheh Ansari has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew,' Space Adventures, working in partnership with Russia's space agency Roskosmos to launch space tourists, said in a statement."

Comments

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space? Unless we're going to have stories over the first green eyed person in space and the first left hander etc. ad nauseam. Why pick this person out as exceptional?

Re:Hmmm

[smallpaul]

Isn't it implicitly sexist to make such a big deal out of the first woman in space?

No. Women (especially Iranian women) have greater hurdles to their accomplishment. So the article highlights that she's done something unique by overcoming those extra hurdles. It is only sexist to highlight this if one presumes that these hurdles are innate and not imposed. Second, such a media event could encourage young girls to reject sterotypes and study science and business. This could help increase the pool of engineers and entrepreneurs. Third, because men tend to be dominant in society, one tends to assume things like that the funders of the X-Prize are likely to be all men. Correcting this misperception helps to dispell the underlying stereotypes. So I think it is good to publicize this aspect.

Re:Hmmm

[kfg]

In 1963 everything to do with space was A Big Deal.

I remember.

They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space.

Bloody goddam shame, but then at the time it was a big deal that Jackie wore pants. There were less well known women who got assaulted for doing the same, as I was once assaulted for letting my hair grow long.

People are funny critters.

KFG

To all you geeks knocking her

[BiggerIsBetter]

I don't recall people having this attitude when Shuttleworth went up, so why all the smartarse comments just because she's female? She's done more with her life than most of you ever will. Mad props to her, she's worked hard to make this happen.

Re:To all you geeks knocking her

[aussie_a]

Mad props to her

I don't recall people saying any such thing when any of the male tourists went up. So why offer her congratulations just because she's female?

Oh and as for the comments. It's called having a sense of humour. You may want to look it up in a dictionary.

Re:Would you go?

[starbird]

There is a huge difference between a suborbital hop lasting 15-20 minutes, and a 1 or 2 week stay in microgravity.

20million is cheap.

Re:What the

[khallow]

Because she paid 20 million USD to be there. Come on! That was easy.

What? No terrorist jokes?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

All the jokes so far, at least the ones modded up have been about her being a woman. Big deal, chicks in space, it has been done before people. Won't someone think of the children? What we should be worried about are the terrorists! She's Iranian and we all know they are part of the axis of evil terror boogey-people, so:

1. Will the TSA make her take her shoes off before boarding the rocket?
   
2. At rocket school did she go to the how to pilot a rocket classes, but skipped the ones on landing?
   
3. Where was she when the Challenger blew up?
   
4. Did Osama promise her 72 male virgins in the afterlife?
   
5. Does she have ID? Terrorists never have ID, so that will keep the rocket safe.
   
6. She better not bring a water bottle on board, she might make a bomb out of water and blow up the space station.