Famed soprano Sarah Brightman will make a “groundbreaking announcement” about space travel later this month, according to the U.S. space tourism company Space Adventures.
Brightman will hold a press conference Oct. 10 in Moscow. She will appear with UNESCO Artist for Peace Mikhail Gendelev and Eric Anderson, chairman of the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures.
Space Adventures has brokered deals to send seven private citizens aboard Russian spacecraft to the international space station. These space tourists typically train extensively in Russia before their trips, and spend about two weeks in Earth orbit. Their ticket prices have ranged from about $20 million for the first traveler, American investor Dennis Tito, in 2001, to $35 million for the most recent space tourist, Canadian circus founder Guy Laliberte, in 2009.
There is no word yet on whether Brightman herself will become the next private space traveler, or if her collaboration with Space Adventures involves some other project altogether.
Available seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been scarce lately, as that vehicle is the only transportation for astronauts to the space station in the wake of last year’s retirement of NASA’s space shuttles.
However, the Russian news agency Interfax recently quoted a Russian space agency source saying seats may open up to space tourists on flights in 2015.
