Phantom of the Opera Star Sarah Brightman Is Going to Outer Space

Good gravy, have I got some news for you: Soprano Sarah Brightman, a.k.a. the original Christine from Phantom of the Opera and the former Mrs. Andrew Lloyd Weber, is going to outer space. What next? Is Michael Crawford planning to journey to the center of the Earth? Whatever—Sarah Brightman for Queen of Space!

Sky News (h/t Business Insider) reports that Brightman will cough up $52 million (lotta money in selling soundtracks to teenaged musical theater enthusiasts) for a 10-day stay to the International Space Station, traveling via a Russian Soyuz capsule. Which means Sarah Brightman will spend nine months training as a cosmonaut. (Just let that rattle around in your brain box for a bit.) According to her amazing space-themed website, which looks like a Doctor Who fansite circa 2004:

Now, at age 52, Brightman is about to embark on what she calls “the greatest adventure I can imagine.” She will be part of a three-person team travelling to the International Space Station on board a Soyuz rocket, where she’ll orbit the earth 16 times daily and become the first professional musician to record a song from space – another ground-breaking moment in a career already riddled with firsts. After undergoing extensive mental and physical testing in Star City, Russia, Brightman was cleared to train as a cosmonaut, and likens the anticipation of her upcoming voyage to being in love. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s this thing that stays beside me as I’m walking down the street.”

Business Insider provides some additional context, explaining that, “many of her tours and shows are futuristic. In her 2013 concert, one of her songs is called ‘Venus And Mars.'”

Sarah Brightman is going to outer fucking space. What a great time to be alive!