Russian Cosmonaut May be Sent to Space Instead of British Singer Sarah Brightman

Moscow (PNA/TASS) — Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev or another young cosmonaut may fly on board the Soyuz spacecraft instead of British singer Sarah Brightman if no new space tourist shows up in the coming days, a source in the rocket and space sector said on Thursday.

“The Space Adventures company has just several days or a week left to find another tourist. Otherwise, anyone of young cosmonauts who have not traveled into space will be sent on flight, for example, Prokopyev,” the source said.

Another source told TASS that the vacant seat in Soyuz should not be occupied due to the loss of Progress M-27M cargo ship in late April. This will allow delivering to the orbit and then taking back to the Earth some 100 kilograms of cargo.

Earlier this week, Brightman announced that she had to delay her flight to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for September for “personal family reasons.”

The singer expressed her gratitude to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Energia, GCTC [Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center], Star City, NASA and all the cosmonauts and astronauts, “for their support during this exciting time in her life.” (PNA/TASS) JBP/RSM