British singer Sarah Brightman is scheduled to begin training in August or September for a flight to the International Space Station as a space tourist in 2015.
The director of the Russian Cosmonaut Training Center, Yury Lonchakov, told reporters on June 27 that Brightman will train with an international crew at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
Brightman, 53, is a famed soprano who starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera." She is reportedly paying more than $50 million for a 10-day trip aboard the orbiting outpost.
She says she hopes to become the first professional musician to sing from space.
Brightman is expected to fly in the company of Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen.
The launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for October 4, 2015.
