Ansari, Anousheh, 1966-

Anousheh Ansari (Persian: انوشه انصاری; née Raissyan; born September 12, 1966) is an Iranian-American engineer, space tourist, and entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems, and her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and chief executive officer of Telecom Technologies, Inc. On September 18, 2006, a few days after her 40th birthday, she became the first Iranian person to be in outer space. Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space tourist and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her memoir My Dream of Stars, co-written with American engineer Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010. She is also the chief executive officer of the XPRIZE Foundation, and the Ansari family is the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize.