Sarah Brightman chases her dream to the International Space Station

Brightman contributed to the design of her own mission patch for TMA 18/16M to commemorate her trip to the International Space Station in September. (credit: SarahBrightman.com)

In September, soprano and classical crossover performer Sarah Brightman, with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. She will be travelling as a spaceflight participant arranged by Space Adventures. Brightman will be only the second female spaceflight participant to travel to the ISS, after Anousheh Ansari in 2006.

Six men have also made the epic trip through Space Adventures. However, Brightmans worldwide fame will draw unprecedented attention to orbital personal spaceflight during her mission to and aboard the ISS. News networks will begin airing segments about her trip weeks in advance of launch. The day of launch it could be the top story on every news broadcast around the world. For Brightman, it will be the realization of a dream she has had for decades.

Brightman was born in August 1960, the first of six children. By the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, she had already been attending piano and dancing classes for five years. She had followed the news of the July 16 launch of the Saturn V carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins.

On July 20th, the Brightmans gathered their children around the television in their Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England home for the live broadcast. Millions of people were riveted to their TVs as the black and white video images were beamed live back to Earth. Sarah Brightman watched in wonder as Neil Armstrong stepped down the ladder of the lunar module. He cautiously placed his boot on the lunar surface and uttered those immortal words, Thats one small step for manone giant leap for mankind. At that moment, something clicked for Brightman, she recalled in an interview.

Being lucky enough to have watched the first man land on the Moon, Brightman said in a London press conference on March 10 hosted by Carol Vorderman, we thought we were going to be astronauts. It was all about space [back then]. For me to have got this far and to be able to have a taste of what I felt at the time, is an amazing thing.

Like many others who witnessed the first American astronauts to walk on the surface of the Moon, Brightman harbored the dream of one day going into space herself. She did not know how that might come about, but she always carried this dream with her. She continued her musical training and entered the Arts Education School in 1971. The die was cast, and Brightman embarked on a path that led her to stardom and worldwide fame. She focused on theater performance and later, her voice as a soprano having received her formal training at the Royal College of Music.

During the 1980s and the 1990s, Brightman continued to build a recording and performing career around the world. In 2001, she learned with interest of the flight of Dennis Tito to the ISS, arranged by Space Adventures. She became even more intrigued at the possibility when she read about Anousheh Ansarithe first female spaceflight participantwho achieved her own dream of going into space for an eight-day mission aboard the ISS.

On October 10, 2012, Brightman was in Moscow for a press conference where she would make a dramatic announcement. Also present were Alexey Krasnov, chief of Roscosmos Piloted Programs Department; Eric Anderson, Chairman of Space Adventures, Ltd.; and Neil Ford of UNESCO. The suspicions of the media that were present were confirmed before a word was even spoken. Being the consummate entertainer and performer, the conference opened with a music video showing film clips of Sarah Brightmans childhood interspaced with historic footage from American and Russian manned space missions, with a musical overlay of her singing Angel, from her upcoming album Dreamchaser.

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Sarah Brightman chases her dream to the International Space Station