Space tourist enjoying her stay on ISS

The first female space tourist is enjoying her stay on the International Space Station (ISS) and is passing her time by taking photos of the view, a German astronaut told a news conference in a live link-up on Friday.

Germany's Thomas Reiter, who began a six-month stint on the space station in July, said Anousheh Ansari, a 40-year-old Iranian-American telecoms entrepreneur, was making the most of her 11 days in orbit.

"The mood up here is very good," Reiter told a news conference by live video link-up at the European Space Agency's operations center (ESOC) in Darmstadt. "Time is going quickly ... and the food isn't bad."

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"Our tourist is enjoying her stay. She is taking photos and has had radio contact over the amateur radio station. Meanwhile, we are just getting on with our jobs."

Reiter, a 48 year old father of two and veteran resident of the Russian Mir space station, is one of three crew members living on the ISS.

Ansari arrived at the ISS by Soyuz spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria on Wednesday.

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She will return to earth with the two outgoing U.S.-Russian crew members Jeffrey Williams and Pavel Vinogradov later this month.   Reiter will remain on board until December.

"We use every free moment to enjoy this absolutely wonderful view and take pictures and videos but also just to let the images sink in," said Reiter, who is conducting various scientific experiments while in space.