BEIJING, Sept. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- An Iranian-born fan of Star Trek has become the first space tourist to go where no female has gone before.

    Anousheh Ansari, a United States citizen, paid almost 19 million U.S. dollars for a ticket to ride a Soyuz rocket headed to the International Space Station (ISS). During the 10-day roundtrip that began yesterday she is planning to write the first blog from space about her trip of a lifetime.

    The Russian rocket blasted off from Baikonur in the desolate steppes of Kazakhstan at 10 a.m. and is due to dock with the space station tomorrow.

    Ansari, a telecommunications tycoon who now resides in Texas, became the fourth space tourist. She is part of a crew-exchange flight and will spend two days on the ISS. She will carry out experiments on back pain for the European Space Agency.

    "Exploring the cosmos has been a dream of mine that I have kept in my heart starting from a young age, and I am very fortunate now to be able to actually experience it," said Ansari, before strapping in for liftoff.

    "Through this mission, I want to bring awareness to the sciences and, specifically, space exploration. I also want to share the experience with as many as possible, so that people from all over the world will know how it feels to fly in the Earth's orbit," she said. 

    Ansari left Iran at age 16, and her space suit carries both the U.S. Stars and Stripes and the Iranian flag.

    Accompanying her on the mission is Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria. They will join Thomas Reiter, a German astronaut on the space station.

    Ansari will come back down to Earth Sept. 28. She defended the role of "space flight participants" and said she viewed herself as an ambassador for attracting private investment to space flight.

    "In order to make great leaps in space exploration, private companies and the government need to work together," explained Ansari. Enditem