Next space tourist: Singer Sarah Brightman?

MOSCOW?? British singer Sarah Brightman may be the next paying passenger to ride a Russian rocket to the International Space Station, sources familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday.

If the trip happens, Brightman, 52, would make the journey in 2015, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an unidentified official in the Russian space industry. A source familiar with Brightman's side of the negotiations confirmed to NBC News that talks were under way, but stressed that they were at an early stage.

Assuming the negotiations are successful, Brightman would be the first paying orbital space passenger since Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who donned a red clown's nose for his 2009 trip to the space station.

Russia has sent seven private passengers to the space station, with the reported price tags escalating from $20 million to more than $40 million. California investment manager Dennis Tito was the first to make the journey in 2001.

Seats on the three-person Soyuz capsules have become scarce since NASA retired its space shuttles last year, leaving Russian rockets as the only craft capable of carrying crews to the station for now.

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Brightman ? who rose to fame starring in the original London and New York casts of "The Phantom of the Opera" ? visited Russia about a month ago and received the approval of a medical commission to begin training at the Cosmonaut Training Center outside Moscow, the source added.

She was married to composer Andrew Lloyd Webber in the 1980s and pursued a chart-topping solo career after their divorce, bringing classical music to a broader audience and selling millions of records along the way. Estimates of her net worth have ranged from $45 million to $52 million and beyond.

Virginia-based Space Adventures has organized trips to the space station for deep-pocketed passengers in the past, but representatives of the company have not commented publicly on the prospects for future trips.

Sources have said the space station's partners are considering a plan to send two spacefliers into orbit in 2015 for almost a year, instead of the usual six months. The logistics involved in that experiment would open up an opportunity for two short-term visitors to the station ? visitors who could include paying passengers such as Brightman.

The Russian space agency said on Wednesday that it supported the idea of gradually extending expeditions to the station to a year, but that no decision had yet been made.

This report includes information from Reuters and NBC News.

? 2012 msnbc.com

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48751853/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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