Star City (Russia): Like millions of children, Anousheh Ansari dreamed and wondered about the stars.
Next month the Iranian-born US entrepreneur can get a closer look, as she rides a Russian capsule to the international space station and becomes the first female space tourist.
The most exciting moment in her voyage will likely come when she first sees Earth "as a blue, glowing globe against the dark background of the cosmos," Ansari told at a news conference on Wednesday at the Russian cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.
Ansari is scheduled to ride to the station aboard a Soyuz TMA-9 capsule, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and Spanish-born US astronaut Miguel Lopez-Alegria.
She will spend 10 days before returning to Earth with its current crew, Pavel Vinogradov and Jeff Williams, who have been on board since April 1.
The Soyuz launch is scheduled for September 14 but it could be delayed four days if a launch of the US space shuttle Atlantis interferes.
The trip promises a dream come true for Ansari, who said space was "in my heart and in my soul."
"I always used to gaze at the stars and wonder what's out there in the universe, and wonder if there are others like me pondering the same questions somewhere else out there," she said.
Ansari, who with her husband co-founded the Texas-based company Telecom Technologies, Inc, is following in the path of space tourists Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen, who also traveled to the international space station aboard Russian capsules.
Ansari's contract bars her from revealing the trip's cost, but she noted previous space tourists have paid some $20 million.
Another of her companies, Prodea Systems Inc, is sponsoring her trip.
Prodea has been involved in space adventures before, helping to fund a competition with a $10 million prize for the first privately financed manned spacecraft to make a suborbital flight.
Her trip has also got limited attention in her homeland Iran.
An Iranian astronomy magazine, Nojoom, Farsi for Stars, had an article about her in August, saying it was a point of pride to have an Iranian going into space.
Ansari said that she hoped her voyage and her life would inspire young people worldwide, "especially women and girls."
Once at the station, Ansari said that she would shoot films demonstrating the laws of physics to be used at schools, and in efforts to promote interest in science and technology.
She said that she will also conduct experiments on microbial growth in zero gravity, and on lower back pain experienced during space flight.
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