| So,
Finally, in Iranian community outside Iran, a woman has the guts to travel to
space and risks her $20 million dollars. Born in Iran and now a U.S.
citizen and successful entrepreneur, Ansari founded the tele
communications firm Telecom Technologies with her husband Hamid and
brother-in-law Amir. The family also provided
seed money for the Ansari
X Prize spaceflight competition – later renamed for the
entrepreneurs – which offered $10 million to the first team to build and
launch a privately-funded, piloted spacecraft to suborbital space and back
twice in two weeks.
More recently, the Ansaris have launched their
Texas-based Prodea firm and agreed to partner
with Space Adventures to develop the tourism firm’s Explorer
spacecraft for suborbital flights from Singapore
and the United
Arab Emirates.
Space Adventures has brokered a series of ISS flights
for high-paying entrepreneurs, beginning in 2001 with the launch of U.S.
businessman Dennis Tito.
South African entrepreneur Mark
Shuttleworth followed in 2002, with U.S. scientist and businessman Gregory
Olsen launching in October 2005. Each of those flights, carried a
reported cost of about $20 million.
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