Upcoming International Space Station crew prepares to host musical celebrity

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) Ever since Alan Shepard blasted off aboard the Freedom 7 capsule in Jan. 1961, the roughly 550 individuals who have traveled into space have all come from an elite albeit similar pool of candidates.

The original "Mercury Seven" astronauts? All military pilots. Through much of NASA's space shuttle program, the space agency mostly limited its pool of astronauts to pilots, engineers, scientists and medical doctors along with the occasional politician.

In 1986, NASA expanded its criteria when it launched teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard space shuttle Challenger a flight that ended in fatal tragedy for all seven crew members. Though NASA says McAuliffe will always be remembered as the nation's first and only "Teacher in Space," the agency launched McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, as an "Educator Mission Specialist" in 2007, and says it remains committed to sending more teachers in the future.

But as the crew that makes up Expedition 44 comprised of American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui prepares to launch for a six-month stint aboard the International Space Station, they say they're also preparing to host a new type of unconventional' astronaut: famed opera singer Sarah Brightman.

Station Soprano

Brightman, who received worldwide acclaim for her breakout role as 'Christine' in Andrew Lloyd Weber's popular 1986 rock-opera "Phantom of the Opera," has been a performing vocalist for three decades, with her official Web site calling her "the world's biggest selling soprano" who boasts a vocal range of over "three full octaves."

And if all goes as planned, in September, Brightman will be singing from an unprecedented venue, launching aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and spending 10 days aboard the International Space Station. Using the station as her concert stage, Brightman is expected to perform a song written in collaboration with Weber especially for the occasion, along with accompaniment by artists on the Earth.

Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui will be on the station during Brightman's brief stay, and WDRB Web Producer Travis Kircher -- along with Space.com reporter Miriam Kramer -- spoke with them briefly during a round robbins phone interview about the upcoming flight.

"I'm excited that Sarah Brightman is flying," Lindgren said. "She is something of an international ambassador for arts and so I'm excited to see the arts in space to see music and do a little performance in space of something that's new."

"She's going to be reaching out to a whole new population that maybe didn't have a particular interest in space previously," he added. "And then she's just going to be something new to the space station. I can tell you that it's going to be very exciting to watch her and hear her perform up there."

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Upcoming International Space Station crew prepares to host musical celebrity