Bob Geldof Set To Go Into Space
Singer and campaigner Bob Geldof is set to travel into space early in 2015 – which he has described as “pretty mind-blowing”.
The 61-year-old Irish star is due to go up on a one-hour commercial space flight with the company Space XC.
He will be in a Lynx Mark II shuttle powered by four rocket engines which will take off from a normal runway. It accelerates to a speed of almost Mach 3 – about 2,200mph – within three minutes, according to the firm’s website.
The Boomtown Rats frontman, who said he would be the first Irishman in space, is due to start his training in a flight simulator based in the Netherlands later this year.
In a statement, he said: “Being the ‘first Irishman in space’ is not only a fantastic honour, but pretty mind-blowing.
“The first rock astronaut space rat!
“Elvis may have left the building, but Bob Geldof will have left the planet! Wild!
“Who would have thought it possible in my lifetime.”
The website said of the Lynx Mark II: “At an altitude of nearly 60km (37 miles), the pilot switches off the engines.
“The parabolic flight begins. The crew experiences weightlessness for several minutes.
“The Lynx Mark II reaches apogee (highest point) at 103km (64 miles). The official frontier of space begins at 100km (62 miles).
“A place where the sky is completely black, despite the sunshine. From here, the Earth’s curvature is clearly visible from the cockpit.”