Blogging from space
I bet that many of you envy Anousheh Ansari, an American businesswoman born in Iran, who will become on September 18 the first female space tourist. As the previous male ones, Ansari had to pay about $20 million for 10 days in space. After a trip in a Soyuz spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, she will spend some time inside the International Space Station (ISS). But what will she do on the ISS? She'll become the first person to blog from space and tell us her thoughts from far above us. Read more...
In fact, she started her space blog on September 12. Here is what she wrote in her first post, "The Road to Baikonur."
This is the first blog I have ever written. I'm usually a private person, but with what has happened in my life, I feel an obligation to share this experience with everyone out there.
And she also tells us why she wanted to do this travel in space.
A long, long time ago, in a country far, far away... there was a young girl who had her eyes fixed on the twinkling stars of the night skies over Tehran. Back then the air was not so polluted and you could see many stars in the night skies. Summer time, when they would set up the beds outside on the balcony to sleep, she would lay in her bed and look deep into the mysterious darkness of the universe and think to herself, What's out there? Is someone out there awake in her bed, and gazing at her in the night sky? Will she ever find her... See her... Will she fly out there and float in the wonderful, boundless freedom of space?
Of course, almost everyone is also dreaming about traveling in space. But Ansari will do it and tell her what's happening from miles above...
In another post, she simply said, "What is the price of a dream...? For me, it is putting my life and my money where my mouth is."
Ansareh, have a nice and safe trip! And don't spend too much time blogging from space!
[Additional note: there are thousands of articles about Ansari's trip. Here is a background, "Iranian-born woman to be space tourist" (David Koenig, Associated Press, September 16, 2006).]
Source: Anousheh Ansari
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