Candidate to Replace Brightman on ISS Trip to be Announced by End of August

The Russian Federal Space Agency is discussing the candidate to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) instead British singer Sarah Brightman. The name of new space tourist will be announced by August.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will announce who will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) instead of British singer Sarah Brightman by the end of August, the agency’s head Igor Komarov said Thursday.

"The issue is currently being discussed with the company selecting candidates, Space Adventures. At the end of all our negotiations we will announce the candidacy. This will be in June or July, August at the latest,” Komarov told reporters.

Famous British soprano Sarah Brightman was to fly to the ISS on September 1 and stay aboard the station for 10 days. But the US-based space tourism firm Space Adventures announced on May 13 that the singer had to postpone her lifetime dream for family reasons.

On Thursday, the Roscosmos chief told RIA Novosti they were not going to replace Brightman with payload. "It certainly won't be cargo. We are picking a candidate for this flight. I'll say later who it will be," Komarov said.

Japanese businessman Satoshi Takamatsu was rumored to be an official replacement for Brightman, but a source in the Russian space agency said earlier he was unlikely to make this trip since he still owed several dozen million dollars for the flight to the orbital outpost.