Celebrating Anousheh Ansari
From first Iranian woman in space to CEO of XPRIZE. Engineer, entrepreneur, explorer. 20 years after orbit, she still pushes humanity forward.
From Dream To Orbit
In 2006 Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world when she embarked upon an 11 day space expedition, accomplishing her childhood dream of flying to space.
As a result of her mission she became the first female private space explorer, first astronaut of Iranian descent in space, and fourth private explorer to visit space.
On September 18 2006 she achieved lifelong dream by becoming first Iranian person, fourth self funded space tourist, and first self funded woman to fly to International Space Station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
During her 10 day mission she conducted experiments for European Space Agency.
Born September 12 1966, Iranian American engineer, space tourist and entrepreneur, she turned a little girl sketch of rockets into real orbit.
A serial tech entrepreneur and active proponent of world changing technologies, she is first female private space explorer, first woman astronaut of Iranian descent in space.
Entrepreneur Before Explorer
Before XPRIZE, she built companies.
Ansari co founded and served as CEO of Prodea Systems, a leading Internet of Things technology firm she co founded in 2006, and continues to serve as executive chairwoman.
She also co founded Telecom Technologies Inc. She is a serial tech entrepreneur.
And her link to XPRIZE started early. Ansari, along with her family, sponsored organization's first competition, the Ansari XPRIZE, a $10 million competition that ignited new era for commercial spaceflight.
Ansari and her family sponsored XPRIZE's first venture in 1994, the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE. That prize sparked private space industry.
CEO Of XPRIZE, Leading Grand Challenges
Anousheh Ansari is CEO of XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges.
She is CEO of XPRIZE Foundation, world's leader in designing and operating large scale incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges.
Under her leadership, XPRIZE has awarded $181M plus and launched $361M in active competitions.
Most recently Anousheh has overseen development and launch of three largest competitions in history:
$101M XPRIZE Healthspan prize to increase healthy life expectancy, the $119M XPRIZE Water Scarcity prize to create breakthroughs in seawater desalination, and the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal to durably and sustainably remove and store carbon dioxide, which recently announced its winners in April 2025.
From carbon removal to water to healthspan, she pushes products into certainty and proven ROI, same theme as AI age, but for planet scale problems.
2026 marks 20 years since her flight.
From first self funded woman in space to CEO guiding humanity's biggest moonshots, she proves what patience and bold vision do.
Celebrating Anousheh Ansari, engineer, explorer, CEO, inspiration for next generation of STEM.
