Female space tourist readies for journey home to earth

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Moscow (dpa) - The world's first paying female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, on Wednesday began packing on the International Space Station (ISS) before she returns to earth in two days' time.

The Iranian-born US businesswoman helped ISS crewmen to stow science equipment on the Soyuz descent capsule that they will undock from the ISS early Friday, Russian flight controllers by Moscow said.

Ansari, 40, is due to touch down at 0111 GMT Friday in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan with cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov of Russia and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who completed a six-month flight on the orbiter.

Ansari will return home as the fourth commercial space traveller to visit the station, paying around 20 million dollars for the 11-day trip.

During her stay she performed experiments for the European Space Agency (ESA), examining causes of anaemia and back pain that affect astronauts in zero gravity.

Travelling with her to the ISS were Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and US astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who will spend six months in orbit as the station's 14th permanent crew.

The third current ISS crewman, ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter, is slated to leave on a US space shuttle in December.