who became the first Iranian and first female space participant. Born in Tehran, Iran, Ansari emigrated in 1984 to the US, where she resides in Plano, Texas. She was the fourth overall self-funded space traveller, and the first self-funded woman, to fly to the International Space Station. Ansari spent eight days on the ISS performing a series of experiments concerning human physiology for the European Space Agency. She travelled under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and lifted off into space on 18 September 2006 aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Ansari is also co-founder of Prodea Systems (a private global digital service), which formed a partnership with Space Adventures Ltd and Roscosmos to create a fleet of suborbital space-flight vehicles for global commercial use. Her family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize.