Moscow, Sep 18 (DPA) A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off Monday with the first female space tourist on board, heading for a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Anousheh Ansari, 40, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, left Earth with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria at 6:08 a.m. (0408 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the mission-control centre said.
Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria are to remain for six months as the new crew for the station while Ansari is due to return to earth in 10 days with the station's departing crew.