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To: Cactus Jack who wrote (54262)	9/20/2006 6:20:12 PM
From: Mannie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104155

Interesting and ironic story, great timing. Up and away, space tourist breaks three records A RUSSIAN Soyuz spacecraft blasted off yesterday carrying a woman set to notch up three space records: the first woman tourist, first Muslim woman, and first Iranian in orbit. Anousheh Ansari, 40, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, joined a Russian cosmonaut and US astronaut in the cramped interior of Soyuz TMA-9 for a flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The Soviet-designed spacecraft lifted off into a clear sky from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. "The flight is normal, the crew feel fine," a flight controller at Mission Control near Moscow said. Unlike American Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian Mikhail Tyurin, who are starting a six-month stint in space, Ms Ansari will return to Earth in 10 days with the outgoing US-Russian crew. Ms Ansari, a US citizen based in Texas who left Iran in 1984, said she wanted to be an example to her compatriots. "I think my flight has become a sort of ray of hope for young Iranians living in Iran, helping them to look forward to something positive, because everything they've been hearing is all so very depressing and talks of war and bloodshed," she said last week. She has been told, however, to remove an Iranian flag from her spacesuit and, at the insistence of the Russian and US Governments, promise that there will be no political messages during her trip. Looking relaxed and smiling at a pre-launch news conference at the cosmodrome on Sunday, Ms Ansari said she would still pack another Iranian flag for her trip. The US and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations since students took 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979. Ms Ansari has not said how much her ticket cost but previous space tourists have paid the Russian space program about $US20 million ($A26.5 million). She had originally been scheduled to join a later Soyuz mission but took the place of Japanese businessman Daisuke Enomoto when he was ruled unable to fly for unspecified medical reasons. The Soyuz craft will dock with the space station early tomorrow.