Ansari- Basking in the aura of happiness

Ansari’s rocket trip to the International Space Station was a little queasy, but she soon embarked on the journey of happiness and is enjoying every moment of her cosmic trip.

Ansari has officially been a part of the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew. The first female spaceflight participant, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 18, 2006 and is now aboard the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Expedition 14 crew members: NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

As a child, Ansari had always dreamt of flying far away to the stars and her dream turned into reality. She was in training as a backup for Daisuke Enomoto for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, through Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space tourism company.

On 21 August 2006, Daisuke Enomoto was medically disqualified from flying the Soyuz TMA-9 mission in September. The next day Ansari was elevated to the prime crew, breaking three records- The first female tourist, first female Muslim and first Iranian in orbit.

Anousheh bid her final goodbye on Monday, heading to the International Space Station (ISS) with the orbiter's new crew.

On Wednesday, at 4:34 a.m. EDT (05:21 GMT), the Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying Expedition 14 crew members wharfed the space station.

Ansari, who was initially noisome, said on Friday that she is basking in every second of enjoyment during her cosmic jaunt.

The Iranian American, Dallas business woman, who paid $20 million for her ride in the Soyuz vehicle to the orbiting space lab, said that the entire experience has been wonderful and has etched a permanent place in the corner of her heart.

Ansari’s trip to the station had not been too great since she suffered from back pain, head ache and motion sickness. She explained that due to lack of gravity, the blood that is pumped to the heart goes down to the feet and gets accumulated in the head, resulting in severe pain in the head. Blood also enters the spine, making the person taller. She said that she was happy to be tall, but the pain was not fun.

But her ducky moment came during the ride when she saw Earth for the first time. It was "so beautiful and peaceful ... It was something I will never forget," she said.

Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis, one of the space shuttle fleet belonging to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), exited from the station on Sunday to give way to the approaching Soyuz capsule. It is expected to land in Florida, on Thursday, after completing three spacewalks to install a truss and two solar arrays on the orbital outpost.

Ansari and her crew members will complete four space walks. During her eight-day stay onboard the International Space Station, Ansari has agreed to perform a series of experiments on behalf of European Space Agency.

She will conduct four experiments regarding mechanisms behind anemia, how changes in muscles influence lower back pain, consequences of space radiation on ISS crew members and different types and species of microbes that have made a home for themselves on the space station.

Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian Mikhail Tyurin are starting a six-month stint in space, superceding Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. flight engineer Jeff Williams, the Expedition 13 crew members, who will return to Earth next week with Ansari on the Soyuz TMA-8 capsule.

Thomas Reiter of the European Space Agency remains at the station, which has 15,000 cubic feet of inhabitable space.

Ansari cannot gauge her happiness and said that she witnessed every second of her approach to the station, breathing every moment with joy and as soon as they landed and the hatch was opened, she smelled ‘SPACE’, her dream took the form of reality but her eyes still could not believe it.

It is rightly said, “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate accomplishments” -- Napoleon Hill