Thursday, August 24, 2006
Ansari Founder Headed To Space
Anousheh Ansari, co-founder of the X Prize Foundation and the Ansari X Prize, is headed to space on the upcoming Russian mission to the International Space Station, after a Japanese tourist was found to be medically unfit. Ansari, along with brother Amir Ansari, funded the $10M Ansari X-Prize that spurred the first commercial spaceflight in October of 2004, and has kicked off a new space industry. Anousheh is a trustee of Santa Monica-based X PRIZE Foundation, which is now running a number of prize-driven efforts in the area of space, energy-efficient automobiles, and genomics.