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X-Prize Funder Will Be First Female Tourist In Space

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the where-no-woman-has-gone-before dept.

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."

3 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hmmm by kfg · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    Well, it was 1963, you have to make some allowances for the attitudes of the time. Eileen Collins was the first shuttle commander after the Columbia disaster and Ansari will be the 40somthingth woman in space.

    KFG

  2. She Deserves This by Rob+Carr · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Anoushe Ansari funded the X-Prize. She deserves this, and yet she's paying for it -- again helping to grow the private space industry.

    Even more entertaining, she's a lot of people's worst nightmare:

    • The Muslim extremists are horrified that a woman is accomplishing so much...and not having to walk 10 paces behind the Soyuz on the way to orbit.
    • The Christian extremists are horrified that a woman is accomplsihing so much...and not having to walk 10 paces behind the Soyuz on the way to orbit.
    • The Iranians are horrified because it's showing their people what the West and a modern lifestyle can provide.
    • George Allen is terrified he'll forget and refer to her as "Macaca".
    • The American loonies -- how long until the paranoid "They shouldn't allow Muslims on the space station" screaming starts?
    • Slashdot readers are horrified because she's a beautiful, intelligent woman who wouldn't go out with them, if they could even get the courage to ask her out in the first place.
    • I'm horrified because I blogged about Ms. Ansari going 4 days ago and never thought to submit it to Slashdot.

    Godspeed Anoushe Ansari. I hope you have a great time.

    --
    This sig seemed like a good idea at the time....
  3. Re:Hmmm by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 5, Informative
    Well, it was 1963, you have to make some allowances for the attitudes of the time. Eileen Collins was the first shuttle commander after the Columbia disaster and Ansari will be the 40somthingth woman in space.

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

    At the time of Mercury and Gemini a number of women quietly tried out to be astronauts. They did well, but NASA would have absolutely nothing to do with women in space. The 20 year gap between Valentina Tereshkova and Sally Ride included U.S. president Nixon signing legislation mandating equal employment opportunity for all U.S. federal government agencies. There were no exceptions, so NASA was dragged kicking and screaming in to the 20th century.

    ...laura, who meets Shuttle height requirements but would need to lose some weight