Iranian woman first to enter int'l space station

An Iranian-born, Anousheh moved to USA with her family after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Iranian-born Anousheh Ansari made history on Thursday, when she became the first Muslim woman to reach the International Space Station on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with two astronauts.

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Mission Control in Korolyov town near here showed live footage of Ansari and the astronauts entering the space station and embracing the current occupants of the ISS.

Ansari is also the world's first female space tourist. She accompanied NASA's Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin.

The three blasted off on Monday from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their TMA-9 space vehicle docked successfully with the ISS at 0521 GMT (1051 IST), space flight officials said at the Korolyov centre.

The docking was broadcast by the video cameras attached to the ISS and the Soyuz.

Ansari, who owns telecom company in the US, paid $20 million to make her space dream come true after a six-month course of Russian language and cosmonaut at the Gagarin centre in Stellar City near Moscow.

Born in 1966 in Mashhad in Iran, Anousheh moved to the US with her family after the 1979 Islamic revolution in her homeland.