Anousheh Ansari

The first female space tourist
co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, Inc and a spaceflight participant with the Russian space program. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. (TTI). The Ansari family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X PRIZE. On September 18, 2006, a few days after her 40th birthday, she became the first female Muslim and first Iranian in space.

Born Mashhad, Iran, Ansari and her parents moved to Tehran shortly afterward. Ansari witnessed the Iranian Revolution in 1979. She emigrated to the United States in 1984 as a teenager.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science at George Mason University and her master's degree at George Washington University.

After graduation, Ansari began work at MCI, where she met her future husband, Hamid Ansari. They married in 1991.


In 1993, she persuaded her husband, Hamid Ansari, and her brother-in-law, Amir Ansari, to co-found Telecom Technologies, Inc., using their savings and corporate retirement accounts, as a wave of deregulation hit the telecommunications industry. The company was acquired by Sonus Networks, Inc. in 2000 for $550 million dollars in stock.