Space tourist: It's cosmic bliss
2006-09-23 16:12
Cape Canaveral - The first paying female space tourist said on Friday that she felt a little queasy on her rocket ride to the International Space Station but she has been enjoying every minute of her cosmic trip.
"The entire experience has been wonderful up here," said Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari.
The Dallas businesswoman paid the Russian space agency $20m to ride in the Soyuz vehicle to the orbiting space lab.
Ansari said that the trip to the station "was not fun for me" since she experienced back pain, a headache and motion sickness.
But her best moment on the ride came when she saw Earth for the first time.
It was "so beautiful and peaceful ... It was something I will never forget," she said.
Ansari arrived at the space station with two new station crew members last Wednesday, a few days after space shuttle Atlantis had departed the orbiting outpost 354km above Earth.
Station declares first ever emergency
United States commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin will replace Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and US flight engineer Jeff Williams who, along with Ansari, return to Earth next week.
Thomas Reiter, a German astronaut with the European Space Agency will remain at the station, which has only 425 cubic metres of inhabitable space.
"It's always a great experience if you get guests up here, being together for quite some time," said Reiter. "It's really fun to have them. Of course, at the moment, in certain places, it's a little bit tighter."
On Monday, two days before the Soyuz arrived, the eight-year-old space station declared its first emergency ever. A Russian oxygen generator overheated, spilt a toxic irritant, melted a rubber seal and produced puffs of smoke.
Atlantis astronaut collapses
Nasa said the crew's lives had not been in any danger. The crew cleaned up the spill with towels, and a charcoal filter scrubbed the irritant out of the air.
The space station crew had not considered going to the Soyuz vehicle attached to the station for an emergency escape, said Williams.
Crew planned to replace parts on the generator on Saturday.
"We never thought we were anywhere near the point of having to go to the Soyuz," said Williams. "We just executed the procedures and it all worked out great."
Meanwhile, Atlantis astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed twice while speaking at a welcome home function on Friday. Officials attributed her wobbles to the adjustment from 12 days at zero gravity.
Piper left the ceremony at the hangar at Ellington Field but was not taken to a hospital. Officials said she was "doing fine".
- AP