Singer Sarah Brightman books flight to space station

Fulfilling a lifelong dream, singer Sarah Brightman has booked a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a 10-day visit to the International Space Station.

Soprano Sarah Brightman, believed to be one of the world's wealthiest classical crossover performers, has booked a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a 10-day visit to the International Space Station.

The launch schedule has not been announced, but the first available flight is believed to be in mid- to late-2015.

"As I'm sure you may know, I'm planning to become a spaceflight participant and have been recently approved to begin my spaceflight training by the Russian space federation, having passed the necessary medical and physical tests," she said today, reading prepared remarks at a news conference in Moscow.

Sarah Brightman will begin training for a flight to the International Space Station after a tour next year to promote a new album, the singer said during a Moscow news conference Wednesday.

"The final scheduling and details of my trip by Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station will be determined very shortly by Roscosmos and the ISS partners," she noted.

Brightman said she will go on tour next year to promote a new album, visiting five continents before returning to Russia to begin six months of mission-specific training.

"This extraordinary voyage has been many months in the planning but more accurately, has been many years in the making," she said. "Throughout most of my life, I felt an incredible desire to take the journey to space that I have now begun."

She said her dream began in 1969 when she was 8 years old watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon

"There, as a small an incredulous child, I watched a man bound gently from the steps of a rocket ship and land on the surface of the moon," she said. "This really was an adventure, it was something miraculous. For me, it was an epiphany.

Follow this link:
Singer Sarah Brightman books flight to space station