Reuters: People News: Singer Sarah Brightman may be Russia's next space tourist: report

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Singer Sarah Brightman may be Russia's next space tourist: report Aug 22nd 2012, 13:52 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Iceland says no bomb found on Russian plane after search Thu, Aug 16 2012 Botched Russian launch junks two telecom satellites Tue, Aug 7 2012 Analysis & Opinion To pity or not to pity Vijay Mallya In Putin's circle, Obama is Gorbachev Related Topics Entertainment » Fashion » People » Russia » British soprano Sarah Brightman gestures during an interview with Reuters in Beijing August 9,2008. Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard By Gabriela Baczynska MOSCOW | Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:52am EDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - British singer Sarah Brightman may be the next paying passenger to ride a Russian rocket to the International Space Station, the Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, citing an unidentified official in the space industry in Russia. If it happens, Brightman, 52, would make the journey in 2015 and would be the first paying customer since Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte who donned a red clown's nose during his 2009 trip, the official was cited as saying. Russia has sent seven private passengers to the International Space Station, each of them reportedly paying at least $20 million. American investment manager Dennis Tito was the first to make the journey in 2001. But seats on the three-person Soyuz capsules have become scarce since U.S. space agency NASA retired its space shuttles last year, leaving Russian rockets as the only craft capable of carrying crews to the station for now. Brightman - who rose to fame starring in the original London and New York casts of "The Phantom of the Opera" - visited Russia about a month ago and received the approval of a medical commission to begin training at the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, the source added. Brightman's agent was not immediately available for comment, and officials at Space Adventures, a U.S.-based firm that has organized paid trips in the past, were not immediately available for comment either. The singer was married to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber in the 1980s and pursued a chart-topping solo career after their divorce, bringing classical music to a broader audience and selling millions of records along the way. Interfax cited an unnamed source in the Russian space industry saying plans to send a two-person crew to the station for about a year in 2015, instead of the usual six months, would free up a seat for a paying passenger on that trip or others around that time. Russian space agency Roskosmos said on Wednesday it supported the idea of gradually extending expeditions to the station to a year, but said that no decision had yet been taken. (Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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