He once said he joined a rock band \u2018to get rich, to get famous and to get laid\u2019. Now Bob Geldof can add \u2018to fly into space\u2019 to the list.<\/p>\nHe once said he joined a rock band \u2018to get rich, to get famous and to get laid\u2019. Now Bob Geldof can add \u2018to fly into space\u2019 to the list.<\/p>\n
Tuesday the Boomtown Rats frontman said he will become the first Irishman and the first rock star to fly out of the earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n
Geldof will be propelled at 2,200mph in a space shuttle to 64 miles above earth. Wearing an astronaut\u2019s suit and helmet, the 61-year-old will only have the pilot for company during the one-hour commercial space flight.<\/p>\n
He will sit inside a Lynx Mark II shuttle powered by four rocket engines which will take off from a normal runway.<\/p>\n
The singer and campaigner was given the \u00a364,000 ticket as a birthday present after he performed a gig at a corporate event in the Natural History Museum.<\/p>\n
His will be one of 100 people who the Space Expedition Corporation is hoping to launch into space next year.<\/p>\n
Geldof said: \u2018Being the first Irishman in space is not only a fantastic honour, but pretty mind-blowing. The first rock astronaut space rat.<\/p>\n
\u2018Elvis may have left the building, but Bob Geldof will have left the planet. Wild. Who would have thought it possible in my lifetime?<\/p>\n
\u2018Who wouldn\u2019t want to leave the planet and have a look? I\u2019d be afraid, but that\u2019s another reason to do it – just the wonder of it.\u2019<\/p>\n
The singer was due to start training in a flight simulator this weekend, but admitted there were some teething problems.<\/p>\n
He added: \u2018(My training) was supposed to start in Holland in a simulator on Sunday but the simulator broke down, so it doesn\u2019t bode well.\u2019 <\/p>\n
The website of the private space company claims members of the public are welcome to apply for a ticket – as long as they have a spare \u00a364,000.<\/p>\n
Describing the experience, the expedition website says: \u2018At an altitude of nearly 37 miles, the pilot switches off the engines. The parabolic flight begins.<\/p>\n
\u2018The crew experiences weightlessness for several minutes. The Lynx Mark II reaches apogee (highest point) at 64 miles. The official frontier of space begins at 62 miles. <\/p>\n
\u2018A place where the sky is completely black, despite the sunshine. From here, the Earth\u2019s curvature is clearly visible from the cockpit.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He once said he joined a rock band \u2018to get rich, to get famous and to get laid\u2019. Now Bob Geldof can add \u2018to fly into space\u2019 to the list. Tuesday the Boomtown Rats frontman said he will become the first Irishman and the first rock star to fly out of the earth\u2019s atmosphere. Geldof […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-166008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-infotainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}