PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Star Sarah Brightman to Head to Space in 2014 or 2015?

According to ABC News, Phantom of the Opera star Sarah Brightman will be the next space tourist, aiming for launch in 2014 or 2015. To secure her spot on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft heading to the International Space Station, "she had to pay the Russian space agency more than the $51 million NASA budgets on average to send its astronauts to the station."

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NASA must commit one of its astronauts to a year-long stay rather than six months to Make Up For the space Brightman will take up on the team. Several astronauts have already volunteered. The official announcement of Brightman's flight will be made in Moscow on October 10th.

Sarah Brightman's West End debut was at the age of 13 in "I and ALbert". She orginated the role of Christine in London and in New York. Brightman has also appeardd on the West End in Nightingale and Cats, as well as the Broadway production of Aspects of Love in 1990.

Brightman married composer Andrew-Llyod Webber in 1984 until 1990. She has recorded a number of solo albums, including 1988's The Trees They Grow So High, 1989's The Songs That Got Away, 1990s As I Come of Age, 1993's Dive, 1995's Fly, and 1998's Eden. And recent ones like La Luna (2001) Harem (June, 2003), Symphony (2008), A Winter Symphony (2008) and the upcoming Dreamchaser (2013).

Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

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