Sarah Brightman. (Credit: Eckhard Pecher)

It appears that British recording artist Sarah Brightman will become the world’s next millionaut space tourist.

Space Adventures has announced an Oct. 10 press conference with Brightman in Moscow where the soprano will make a “groundbreaking” announcement. Brightman has been in negotiations with the Virginia-based company for a trip into space.

Space Adventures has booked eight trips to the International Space Station for seven wealthy adventurers aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The company is also trying to fill a second seat for a circum-lunar flight, for which tickets costs $150 million apiece. The moon flight is set to take place by early 2017.

Details of the press conference follow after the break.

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GOTHMAN DATING PARTNERS PR — This will be the very first, first date in space. All I need now is the adventurous, beautiful woman to go up there with me.” Tech Stock Millionaire Bryan Christopher (38) from Ohio has placed his money down for two seats aboard Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship Two, and is almost set for his date with a difference. He is just absent one element…his date for the occasion.

Gotham Dating Partners Inc. and Virgin Galactic will send one date into space as part of their new promotion.

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Richard Garriott

The Examiner has a lengthy Q&A interview with millionaut space tourist Richard Garriott. Some key excerpts:

Yes, $30 million is about right. The brash answer is I earned this money the old fashioned way, with hard work and elbow grease building successful businesses, and I can spend it how I want. But the more relevant answer goes back to the prior question: this wasn’t just an expensive lark. (more…)

Millionaut Richard Garriott aboard the International Space Station with five other lesser known professional space travelers.

Geeks in Space
The Big Money

“There’s a documentary called Orphans of Apollo that’s stated this well,” [Richard Garriott] explained. “There’s a generation of us, who are the tech leaders of today, who were universally inspired to go into science and technology because of the NASA Lunar Space Program. And the reason the movie is called Orphans of Apollo is because, in many ways, we feel orphaned by the fact that the space industry has not done a good job of capitalizing on that momentum of what many of us believed were the first steps into space, carrying the mission of human space flight farther and farther into deep space.”

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Wannabe Space Tourist Wants $21 Million Back Over Scuttled Mission Wired “The Japanese internet tycoon who paid $21 million to become the first space tourist to walk outside the International Space Station wants his money back. In a lawsuit, Daisuke Enomoto, 37, claims that Space Adventures, the private firm with connections to the Russian Federal Space Agency, ‘deceptively and fraudulently’ induced him to pay $21 million for a 10-day orbital […]

Stephen Colbert interviewed game developer and future millionaut Richard Garriott on Thursday night for his satirical “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central. The host had a telephone chat with Garriott, who was in Russia undergoing training for his upcoming flight to the International Space Station.

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