On the survival course, Brightman has to spend 72 hours outside and construct a wigwam shelter using branches and a parachute, while knee-deep in snow<\/p>\n
SPACE TOURIST IN TRAINING. A handout picture released by the press service of the Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) on January 20, 2015 shows British singer Sarah Brightman attending a press conference at the GCTC in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, January 19, 2015. File photo by GCTC Press Service\/Handout\/EPA <\/p>\n
MOSCOW, Russia British singer Sarah Brightman has started a grueling 72-hour survival course in a snowy Russian forest to train for her upcoming role as a space tourist, Russia's cosmonaut training center said Friday, January 23. <\/p>\n
The soprano known for her starring roles in West End musicals composed by ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber, is due to spend 10 days in space in September after paying $52 million to become the eighth space tourist in a flight arranged by US firm Space Adventures. <\/p>\n
This month she began training at the legendary Gagarin cosmonaut training center in Star City outside Moscow. <\/p>\n
In pictures of the survival course released by the training center, Brightman is shown in a snowy forest of fir trees, lashing tree trunks together to make a shelter while wearing waterproof jacket and trousers and a winter hat. <\/p>\n
Temperatures fell to -16 degrees Celsius (3 Fahrenheit) in Moscow this week, followed by heavy snowfall Friday. <\/p>\n
Brightman, 54, is in training with cosmonauts and astronauts from NASA, the Russian space agency and the Japanese space agency, as well as with a Japanese businessman who will take over as her replacement on the space flight if she has to drop out. <\/p>\n
At a briefing Monday, January 19 at the cosmonaut training center, Brightman said: \"I would like to say how proud and honored and excited I am to be part of the Russian space program and to be a cosmonaut in training.\" <\/p>\n
\"I hope.... I can do as good a job as possible and come up to expectations and I will try as hard as I can,\" she added. <\/p>\n
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Singer Sarah Brightman in training for space tourist role<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the survival course, Brightman has to spend 72 hours outside and construct a wigwam shelter using branches and a parachute, while knee-deep in snow SPACE TOURIST IN TRAINING. A handout picture released by the press service of the Gagarin Research & Test Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) on January 20, 2015 shows British singer Sarah Brightman attending a press conference at the GCTC in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, January 19, 2015. File photo by GCTC Press Service\/Handout\/EPA MOSCOW, Russia British singer Sarah Brightman has started a grueling 72-hour survival course in a snowy Russian forest to train for her upcoming role as a space tourist, Russia's cosmonaut training center said Friday, January 23 Continue reading