1984 emigrated to USA..Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and computer sciences from George Mason University, 1988; Master of Science from George Washington University, 1991. She was co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies Inc. (TTI). Along with her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, she set up the X-Prize through their joint multi-million dollar contribution on May 5, 2004. The $10m prize was won by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne in 2004. She is also co-founder of Prodea, which signed a deal with Space Adventures, Ltd - a space tourism company that works with the Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation (FSA). Was scheduled as double for Daisuke Enomoto for the mission Soyuz TMA-9; since he was medically grounded on 21.08.2006 she was assigned to the flight crew. Hobbies: space activities, listen to likes to music, hiking, basketball.