The world's first female space tourist is also a telecom entrepreneur with EE degrees from George Washington University and George Mason University. Ansari is reportedly paying more than $20 million to help perform scientific experiments on the Space Station and return to Earth after ten days in space with the current Space Station crew.

Ansari is scheduled to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz TMA-9 flight later this month. Coordinating flight schedules between the U.S. Shuttle program and Russia officials has been complicated this week by Hurricance Ernesto.

Ansari's trip was unexpectedly moved up when another space tourist. Daisuke Enomoto of Japan, failed a preflight medical test. She will be the first woman to make a commercial space flight. Three male space tourists have flown since 2001.

Ansari's family made a multimillion-dollar contribution to fund the X Prize, a $10 million suborbital competition for privately-developed, reusable spacecraft. Together with her husband Hamid and brother-in-law Amir, Ansari also cofounded Dallas-based Prodea to develop aircraft-launched suborbital vehicles.

At a press conference in Moscow, Ansari was quoted as saying: "One good thing is, maybe, I will generate some positive media about the Middle East with everything going on," a reference to current U.S.-Iranian tensions. "I've gotten so many calls and e-mails and mail, especially from women in Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries [who] are excited that someone from [Iran] gets to go up."