Time To Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman is blasting off into space!
BUT will she lose her heart to a starship trooper? Sarah Brightman reveals plans to sing in space on the International Space Station during ten day voyage
Her first hit record was called I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper - way back in 1978.
At a press conference today hosted by Carol Vorderman, Sarah Brightman revealed that she is achieving a life-long ambition and actually going up into space.
She will fulfill the duties of an astronaut as well as become the first professional musician to perform in space.
She revealed that going into space had always been the biggest deam of her life.
But I never said it," she confessed.
"It seemed so unrealistic."
The millionaire soprano is funding her own ten day voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) and says she was inspired by the first televised moon landings in 1969.
“Watching the first man land on the Moon was an epiphany,” she explains.
“It changed things.
"It helped me understand what it was I had to do in my life, to further myself, to think outside of the box.
And this is no self-indulgent celebrity whim.
Sarah has undergone two years of gruelling training, first at NASA and then at Star City and the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia.
She faced 16-hours days when she was subjected to extreme g-forces, high altitude chambers and psychological and claustrophobia tests - as well as intensive Russian lessons.
The Phantom of the Opera star is making the historical trip on board a Russian Soyuz rocket in partnership with Space Adventures Ltd.
The whole voyage is estimated to cost £35million.
The soprano has struck back at accusations that this is simply an extravagant way to promote her new album Dreamchaser.
"I paid for it myself," she declared.
"I can't contractually say more.
“But there are far better and much less expensive ways to do a PR exercise!”
In fact, Sarah will also be there as a Challenger Learning Center Advisory Board Member as well as a Virgin Unite youth scholarship benefactor AND to promote a closing of the gap in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields.
Sounds exhausting.
WATCH SARAH SING I LOST MY HEART TO A STARSHIP TROOPER NEXT
Sarah Brightman + Hot Gossip - I lost my heart to a starship trooper 1979
As part of a small three-man team, Sarah certainly isn't just along for the ride.
The 54-year-old will also have to fulfill vital duties while she is on board.
She admits that the prospect is "terrifying."
She also plans on going down in history as the first professional to sing in space.
The performance will also take place towards the end of her trip, since the body takes seven days in space to acclimatise while all the spare bodily fluids drift towards the head, giving the symptoms of a heavy cold.
WATCH SARAH SING TIME TO SAY GOODBYE WITH ANDREI BOCELLI NEXT
Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli - Time to Say Goodbye (1997) [720p]
She has actually consulted Chris Hadfield, the US astronaut who sang David Bowie's Space Odyssey on the ISS, for advice about the unique conditions she will face.
The greatest challenge she will face is shortness of breath.
And then, finally, on September 1 Sarah will blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in the Kazakhstan desert.
After a six-hour flight she will spend 10 days there, orbiting the Earth 16 times daily.
When she was asked what she was hoping to get out of the trip, her passion and emotional investment was evident.
"Talking to other astronauts, they say that the emotions you feel are like nothing you ever feel on Earth," she said.
"We live in such an extraordinary place, our planet it absolutely beautiful, but we can't really see it.
"I want to understand everything better. Talking to everyone who has been up they say they do understand our planet better, seeing how delicate it is.
"We always think how unimportant we might be but I think we're incredibly important because we've been given this beautiful place to look after.
"When you're up there you see that and I want to experience that."
Sarah Brightman's new album Dreamchaser is out now
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She's a starship trooper
SARAH Brightman insists she will be over the moon if she can become the first musician to perform in space during her 10-day trip to the International Space Station.
Preparation has been intense and included time in altitude chambers, being subjected to extreme G-forces and learning Russian.
She will be hoping for a performance that is truly out of this world to make such commitment worthwhile.
