The first female and Muslim astronaut's journey to the stars. Her childhood dream of going into space came true when Anousheh Ansari blasted into orbit on a Soyuz rocket from the Russian cosmodrome of Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, on 18 September 2006. Iran born, American national, Ansari paid around $20m to become the first female space tourist that lasted about 10 days and included a stay abroad International Space Station. Proud of her Iranian-Islamic roots as she is of her American legacy, she sported the flags of both Iran and America on her spacesuit. Leaving Iran she came to US, in 1984, and studied electronics and data processing and finally took US citizenship. Along with her husband, she made her fortune in her telecommunication start-up that grew to employ 250 people before Ansari sold the Company for $550m, in 2000. The Ansaris has contributed $10m to set up the now famous Ansari prize that is given each year for novel space exploration initiative.