Posted on 10/04/2012 3:03:49 PM PDT by drewh
What's a rich space tourist to do? If you want to fly in space, seats are harder to find than a flight out of Chicago's O'Hare airport during a blizzard. So your only option is to bump an astronaut from a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft going to the International Space Station.
ABC News has learned that singer Sarah Brightman, of "Phantom of the Opera" fame, will be the next tourist in space, sometime in 2014 or 2015. To get her seat she had to pay the Russian space agency more than the $51 million NASA budgets on average to send its astronauts to the station.
To maintain its presence in orbit when Soyuz seats are limited, NASA had to agree to commit at least one of its astronauts to spend a year in space, instead of the six months they currently stay. Brightman's trip will be announced in Moscow on Oct. 10.
NASA says a year in space has great medical research benefits. Astronauts spending just six months on the space station in the past have suffered from radiation exposure, muscle mass loss, decreased bone density, and vision problems. The research from a year on the space station will help NASA plan for long flights to Mars or an asteroid. It does mean an astronaut will get booted from a flight to adjust for one less seat
For a singer like Sarah Brightman, who thrilled the world when she starred in "Phantom of the Opera," the inspiration should be out of this world.
Rumors flew earlier this week when author J.K. Rowling told an audience in England she had once been offered a seat on a space shuttle for a couple of million dollars. NASA quickly scotched that story.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Obama and the DNC destroyed NASA.
NASA’s only role, under the UNDOCUMENTED MOSLEM TYRANT,
is to help Islam prepare for Jihad in space.
I’m glad to see a beautiful stage and opera singer and class-act like Sarah Brighton has as much dough to splash around as a tart like Madonna (sorry I had to mention her in the same sentence)
Have fun Sarah!
Idiot.
Some will do anything for publicity
Agree
Brightman turns out to be one dumb bitch.
Nonsense.
That's not its role at all, let alone its only one. If you want to know what NASA does, you look at its budget, not listen to some stupid thing that Bolden told an Arab television network.
What a voice ! Love to listen to her.
Sarah and Andrea Bocelli, Con te partirò (Time to Say Goodbye)
They don’t breathe helium up there do they? :^)
Ruski will have competition, then.
/johnny
I think she’s spending some of her ex’s (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s) money.
Obama killed the Space Shuttle and now we are at mercy of the Soviets.
“We can’t even launch a man into space and have to hitch rides from the Russians” would have been a great point for Romney to have bashed Zero with last night.
Time to say Goodbye (Millenium Concert) Sarah Brightman e Placido Domingo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Exzy_Tkc9g
The shuttle could operate with a crew of two (Mission Commander and Pilot), taking FIVE passengers up to the ISS at a time. It also, on at least one occasion, flew back with eight people (MC, Pilot and six others) on board.
Now NASA begs, bids and bargains for a single seat on a Russian capsule.
Think of the good she could do with that money right here in the U.S.
Cancer research, animals...
Like Bill Gates sending all that money to foreign countries.
Charity begins at home...and do we need it now!
A concert IN the stars...
cool.
IMO one of the most average of voices.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.