Updated on Sunday, September 24, 2006, 00:00 IST

ISS, Sept 24: Space tourist Anousheh Ansari said on Friday she's staying on top of things at the office even as she orbits the Earth on the International Space Station.

"I'm keeping up to date with what's going on in our office and the progress everyone's making, so they're sending me status reports," Ansari told reporters in a live link-up.

"It's wonderful, the technology up here, it's like I've never left the Earth and like I'm sitting in my office actually," the 40-year-old Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur said, her necklace floating beneath her chin in the weightless environment.

Ansari arrived at the space station by Soyuz spacecraft on Wednesday, becoming the first female tourist, the first female Muslim and the first Iranian in orbit. She is scheduled to return to Earth on September 28.

Like the three space tourists before her, she reportedly paid $20 million for her ticket. That bought her back pains, headache and motion sickness during the trip into orbit -- as well as some good-natured ribbing from her five male companions on the space station.

"As Mike was saying, I was ironing and cooking up here," Ansari said, referring to American astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria.

Bureau Report