British singer Sarah Brightman said today she had bought a seat to fly on a Russian spaceship and described it as a chance to live out a childhood desire "beyond her wildest dreams".
Brightman, 52, who once had a hit song called I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper, plans to travel some 400km above Earth to the International Space Station - becoming the first space tourist since Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte donned a red clown's nose on his 2009 trip.
"I am more excited about this than I have been about anything I have done to date," Brightman, in platform heels and a silky black dress, told reporters in Moscow. "Most of my life I have felt an incredible desire to take the journey to space that I have now begun," she said. "This is beyond my wildest dreams."
A news conference held for the announcement in Moscow began with a music video advertising Brightman's new album "Dream Chaser", which is expected to be released in January. The video of her crooning the album's top track Angel is spliced with footage of her as a child and famous moments from Soviet space history.
Brightman, a Unesco artist for peace, said seeing fuzzy TV images of the first human steps on the moon in 1969 when she was eight years old inspired her with the dream to travel to space.
While the singer did not disclose the price tag for the trip, the ninth so far brokered by U.S. firm Space Adventures, it is expected to be upward of $35 million (€27 million). Russia charges Nasa astronauts more than $50 million per seat.
The adventure package includes 12 days in orbit. Brightman said she would use her mission to promote education for women in the sciences and raise environmental awareness.
The star, famous for starring in the musical Phantom of the Opera, sang her about enthusiasm for space in thigh-high boots and a sequined leotard in her 1970s hit I Lost my Heart to a Starship Trooper.
The singer, who has already booked a ride on Virgin Galactic's planned suborbital SpaceShipTwo vehicle, said she passed the rigorous pre-flight test at Russia's Star City training centre outside Moscow "with flying colours".
A decade after US businessman Dennis Tito became Russia's first space tourist, the commercial space flight industry is heating up.
US space agency Nasa gave the industry a boost when it signalled it expects to rely on private sector "space taxis" to ferry cargo and crew to the $100 billion orbital research station after the retirement of its shuttle programme last year.
The US agency has handed Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences Corp contracts worth a total $3.5 billion to reach that goal.
Reuters