Iranian-American space passenger Anousheh Ansari is carrying prayers for peace with her to the international space station this week, but she's also carrying a piece of space history. Packed among her personal belongings is a cutting from the SpaceShipOne rocket plane, the world's first privately developed suborbital spaceship. The craft's designer, Burt Rutan, confirms that he gave Ansari a couple of extra mementos to bring along on the trip.
Ansari told me about the sample from SpaceShipOne last week, during the buildup to her launch from Kazakhstan. But that posed a bit of a puzzle: The plane was raised up into the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum a year ago, and that's where it hangs today. So how did Ansari get her piece?
Even before Ansari's launch, NBC News space analyst James Oberg asked Rutan about the SS1 artifact in an e-mail, and the aerospace pioneer responded thusly (with an electronic copy going to yours truly):
"We gave her three things: flight patches from both the X Prize flights and a carbon-fiber piece from SS1. One patch was our SS1 flight test patch, the other was Brian's Flight 17p patch (the second X Prize flight). Both the patches were flown to space in SpaceShipOne.
"The carbon-fiber piece is a little bigger than a silver dollar. It was part of SS1, as flown to space on the first private manned spaceflight. (Flight 15p, 21 June 2004). It was removed as weight saving before the X Prize flights were flown. ...
"I am a little surprised at how little press coverage she is getting in spite of being a 'liberated' Iranian woman in today's political climate. I suppose that may change when she reaches orbit. Wish I were going with her."
Ansari has become a standard-bearer for what one of her fans, X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, calls the "personal spaceflight revolution" - and that's not just because of the strong pitch she made for private space investment on the eve or her launch. She and other family members were the key backers of the $10 million Ansari X Prize that was won by Rutan and his team, of course, and she's involved in a suborbital space venture that could well someday go orbital.
Then there's the international angle: Texans claim her as an adopted Texan, and Virginians see a connection as well. Meanwhile, Iranians describe her as Iranian-born, while others call her a "refugee who fled Iran's mullahs." Heck, in Azerbaijan they're describing her as an Azeri.
Her high profile could well change the dynamics of space commercialization, said Granger Whitelaw, president and chief executive officer of the Rocket Racing League. "She's going to be a catalyst for women getting involved in the space race," Whitelaw told me today.
Do you agree, or is this trip just a flash in the pan? Feel free to leave your comments below.
