EPISODE SUMMARY
This week’s Pathfinder podcast features the CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, Anousheh Ansari. Before joining XPRIZE, Anousheh co-founded Telecom Technologies, a telecommunication company that integrated voice and data. In 2006, she became the first first-privately funded female and Iranian-American to travel to space and the International Space Station.
EPISODE NOTES
This week’s Pathfinder podcast features the CEO of the XPRIZE Foundation, Anousheh Ansari – our first guest who’s actually been to space (it’s shocking to us too that it’s taken this long). After immigrating to the United States from Iran as a teenager, she co-founded Telecom Technologies, a telecommunication company that integrated voice and data. In 2006, she became the first first-privately funded female and Iranian-American to travel to space and the International Space Station.
Catch up: The $10 million purse, sponsored by the Ansari family, set forth a competition to stimulate innovation in private spaceflight. It challenged private entities to design a reusable crewed spacecraft capable of two flights within a two-week period. In 2004, the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team’s SpaceShipOne clinched the prize, catalyzing a paradigm shift in the realm of commercial spaceflight. Virgin Galactic eventually licensed the technology for its SpaceShipTwo vehicle.
In addition to Anousheh’s background, we discuss:
- The origins of the XPRIZE Foundation
- How to focus on the right global challenge
- The future of commercial spaceflight
- Structuring the incentives to promote innovation
- XPRIZE Wildfire
- And much more…
• Chapters •
00:00 – Intro
01:02 – Moving from Iran to the US
07:45 – Going to space
10:09 – Becoming the first Iranian-American astronaut
13:47 – The Overview Effect
17:18 – Introduction to XPRIZE
27:28 – The XPRIZE Brain Trust
33:00 – Equity ownership at XPRIZE?
38:21 – Wildfire detection & suppression
39:45 – XPRIZE & Crowdsourcing
41:58 – How has the experience of space flight changed?
46:41 – Regulations in the commercial space flight industry
51:37 – Game changing technology for humanity
55:12 – What does Anousheh do for fun?
56:15 – Favorite sci-fi movies?
56:42 – How to get involved with the X Prize Foundation