Six months after a disastrous engine explosion, Scaled Composites showed off mockups of SpaceShipTwo today. You’d think for $200K, you’d get a better view during your 4½ minutes of weightlessness:

Pakistani-Dubaikar poet and astrologer Namira Salim will be one of the first average Jamilas to rocket into suborbit:

Namira Salim is set to become the first Pakistani female to travel into space, hopes her journey will encourage other Muslim women to reach for the stars… She was selected last year from 44,000 candidates to become a member of the Virgin Galactic Founders Club… Salim, 35, was born in Karachi, but now lives in Dubai and the south of France. She is a poet and an artist. “I am not a professional astronaut but since a young age have been fascinated by space and astronomy…” [Link]

She got her first telescope when she was 14. She joined the country’s first astronomy society - Amastro Pak - at the age of 16… Born and bred in Defence Housing Society, Karachi, Namira Salim left Pakistan after her intermediate in commerce to study international business [at] Hofstra… she moved to… Columbia University… to study international relations.

The only sister of twin brothers who run their father’s business of heavy construction industry in Dubai, [she] learnt flying as well as scuba diving… Her Punjabi father… hails from Sheikhupura… and [her] mother [from Allahabad]… “My mother is worried about my safety but I keep telling her how strong the material of the spaceship are and being Muslim, life is in the hand of Allah the Almighty…” [Link]

Anousheh Ansari was the first Muslim woman in space, but she was a self-made telecom entrepreneur. Five ways Salim could’ve landed this ticket:

1. Used her family wealth
2. Become a famous artist
3. Impressed Virgin with her cred as an astronomy buff
4. Cashed in two million Virgin Atlantic miles (seriously)
5. Sold more Karachi haikus than Harry Potter

However she did it, I’m looking forward her words after weightlessness, and they’d better be more substantial than a limerick.

Damn right I’m jealous. Aren’t you?

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