posted 10-10-2012 08:10 AM               

Editor's note: In an effort to keep the topic Recording artist Sarah Brightman's mission to ISS focused on status updates, feedback and opinions are directed to this thread.

Please use this topic to discuss the global recording artist's preparations to fly and mission to the International Space Station.

posted 11-18-2012 07:14 AM               

I've never heard of this woman and she's British... as you knew that British newspapers don't have any interests on human spaceflight, so if anyone know where and who she works for?

I'm interested to find out more about Sarah Brightman, so I'm listening...

posted 11-22-2012 02:35 PM               

"This is not the first time such a situation has arose. Of course, this information is news to me, but I'm not very surprised. Many years ago there was an option to send one singer into space. He had undergone a medical selection and there were plans to sign a contract with him. I don't have precise information on the situation with Sarah Brightman, but such things are probably possible, yes," Krikalev told Interfax-AVN.

Sources in the rocket and space industry earlier told Interfax-AVN that Brightman, who announced her wish to make a tourist flight to the ISS in October, will probably not fly. "It is very probable that the singer said she may fly to the ISS to fuel interest in her year-long world tour, which she will begin next year," the source said.

posted 11-23-2012 08:06 AM               

"I have met with Sarah Brightman. She intends to fly. However, Roscosmos has not made a final decision yet," Popovkin said.

Commenting on the reasons why no decision has been made yet, Popovkin said: "We need to provide young cosmonauts with flight practice."

Speaking about when a final decision may be made on the matter, Popovkin said it will happen "in the second half of 2013."

posted 03-17-2013 09:49 AM               

Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin said that plan could be off the table because the Russian space agency is considering extending to flight from eight days to one month.

In that case, he said, Brightman would have to give up her seat to a professional.

posted 03-31-2013 09:24 AM               

She tells Seven magazine, "When I first was asked to do it, I thought 'I don't think so'. It's a really important step to take. But the second time I felt ready.

"I'm feeling anticipation about the flight, but no apprehension, just how I feel before I go on stage."

posted 05-06-2013 05:08 PM               

"The sides will discuss in the near future the implementation of this project, including Sarah Brightman's preparation for the flight and the program of her activities on board the orbital station," Roscosmos said in a statement.

posted 12-22-2014 12:14 PM               

Takamtsu is the founder and CEO of Space Travel, a space tourism firm in Japan, which has an agreement to market Space Adventures' programs in the country.

"We have worked with Mr. Takamatsu over the last decade and as we continue our efforts to expand private spaceflight opportunities, we look forward to work closely with him and his newly formed Space Travel firm in providing these opportunities to the people of Japan," said Tom Shelley, President of Space Adventures, in September. "Mr. Takamatsu is a big space fan, but also a very successful businessman and brings his own unique experience as the only person to direct a television broadcast commercial onboard the International Space Station. I am looking forward to a very fruitful partnership."

We have succeeded in having three space projects on board the International Space Station. In 2001, we shot the Pocari Sweat commercial in HD in space, and in 2005 we have shot the last episode for the Nissin Cup Noodles NO BORDERS series. In 2008, we conducted the Olympus space project as well, in which astronaut Wakata took photographs of Earth from the Japanese module Kibo and we used those for a photography exhibition.

posted 03-02-2015 07:30 AM               

British singer Sarah Brightman will fly to the International Space Station dressed in a velvet-blue space suit with an emblem of a flag of the United Kingdom.

The details of the costume of the next space tourist were disclosed by Alexander Yarov, Director General of the Kentavr-Nauka company that has been the main designer of space outfit for Russian cosmonauts for the past 40 years. "During a short space flight Sarah Brightman intends to wear a spacious polo-style shirt, a light suit, a Kentavr space suit intended to minimize the pressure of space load during the flight and a Bracelet elastic belt," Yarov told TASS on Monday.

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov - Chief pilot of the Soyuz TMA-18M spaceship, which will take Brightman into space in September, has chosen the colors for the clothes for the space crew. Volkov decided on the velvet-blue shades for the space clothes which will differ in the emblems of the space crew's national flags only, Yarov said.

posted 03-07-2015 04:28 PM               

Bass was not a client of Space Adventures, the only company capable of booking seats on Soyuz for self-funded passengers.

As for Brightman, she is a Space Adventures client and they have never agreed to represent someone through the training and flight process for publicity only.

posted 03-08-2015 04:37 AM               

(I noticed you're similarly touchy when it comes to tongue-in-cheek comments about Virgin Galactic. Stop defending rich celebrities!)

posted 03-08-2015 06:08 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dom:
I only have respect for space tourists who have a genuine love of spaceflight.

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Between the invasive medical exams at the hands of doctors you don't know (and at the time, may not even speak the same language of) and the hours of studying (both learning Russian and spacecraft systems simultaneously), not to mention the physical training and isolated living conditions in Star City, one has to have their heart in it or they aren't going to succeed.

Besides, dismissing someone simply because of their success, or resulting wealth, in their chosen field seems wrong.

posted 03-08-2015 10:29 AM               

...Brightman used some of her multimillion-pound fortune to buy a notebook that [Buzz] Aldrin had used on the moon. He scrawled "these notes were made by me on the moon" then signed his name. The page is now framed and has pride of place on the wall of her Los Angeles home, alongside a collection of posters from Soviet space missions that she has bought at auction over the years.

"Through all this I met a lovely gentleman called Peter Diamandis, who is a co-founder of the space agency I have gone through, Space Adventures," she says. "A couple of years later he said, 'Look, would you be interested in going to the International Space Station?' My first reaction was, 'It's amazing that you are asking me and that you think I could be a candidate for this.' But I wasn't ready for it, to go through all the medicals. Yet it left that little thing in my head."

A couple of years later the offer was repeated. She agreed to go through the medical testing program at the NASA headquarters in Houston, Texas, assuming that as a woman in her fifties she had little chance of passing.

"I got through everything and at a very high level," she says, flushing with pride. "I was incredibly healthy."

...Brightman claims to have been hooked on space since she saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon when she was eight. It was that night, she says, that she resolved to work really hard at whatever she was good at to go as far as she could in life.

posted 03-09-2015 07:31 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Tim Peake couldn't claim that before Brightman's flight either...

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posted 03-09-2015 03:37 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
At least a few of the past fliers' trips were partially funded by outside sources, too.

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posted 03-10-2015 01:39 PM               

If I was British (which I'm not), I'd be very annoyed that all the press attention is now focused on her vanity trip into space — at the expense of the first 100% British government funded ESA/British astronaut mission to the ISS.

The British government has always been sniffy about manned spaceflight and not unfortunately Peake's packed mission of science will now be overshadowed by a mediocre singer whose only possible experimental usefulness will be to test the effects of weightlessness on Botox.

posted 03-10-2015 01:56 PM               

Brightman will be just the 60th woman in space, out of more than 500 space explorers worldwide, so at the very least she's going to be an additional role model for young women. And she's advancing projects for both UNESCO and the Challenger Center for Space Education, organizations I suspect most would agree deserve the exposure.

Brightman clearly has her fans worldwide, so she involves a new audience in spaceflight and exposes them to the work being done on the space station. And despite claims that she's only doing this for publicity, she has demonstrated she has had a long interest in space exploration, even collecting space memorabilia.

posted 03-10-2015 03:11 PM               

As for it being a farce: although I may be comparing apples and oranges, wasn't the stated goal in the early 80s of NASA flying a teacher, journalists, other "non-traditional" astronauts aboard shuttle to communicate in their respective professions about spaceflight to a wider audience?

posted 03-10-2015 03:13 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dom:
All I'm saying is that I'm just sorry for those who worked hard to get Tim Peake to the ISS. Very bad timing.

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At this morning's press conference, Peake appeared in a recorded video offering his words of support for Brightman.