A Russian-built rocket carrying the world's first female space tourist lifted off Monday in Kazakhstan on a flight to the international space station. Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, was accompanied by a U.S.-Russian crew on the Soyuz TMA-9 capsule. Ansari is aiming to realize a life-long dream. As the fourth space tourist, the Iranian-born American also becomes the first woman to pay her way into space, and the first person of Iranian descent to get there. Her colleagues on the flight, American Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian Mikhail Tyurin, are starting a six-month stint in space. But Ansari will return to earth in 10 days with the outgoing U.S.-Russian crew. "The flight is normal, the crew feel fine," a flight controller at Mission Control near Moscow said, Reuters reported. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Ansari said she knows people will be watching -- a belief confirmed by the comments posted on her blog, anoushehansari.com "Me being the first female has inspired a lot of women and girls in Iran, especially being Iranian, and I've received numerous e-mails, messages of different sorts saying how proud of me they are."
