spacetoday.net: Brightman cancels ISS trip

Posted: Thu, May 14, 2015, 9:27 AM ET (1327 GMT)
Brightman, Sarah (sarahbrightman.com)

Would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman announced Wednesday she was dropping plans to fly to the International Space Station in September. Brightman said she was postponing plans to fly to the ISS because of "personal family reasons," without elaboration. Brightman had been training in Russia for several months for her flight on a Soyuz spacecraft scheduled for September 1. A Japanese executive, Satoshi Takamatsu, has been training as a backup for Brightman, but it was not clear if he would take her place on the flight. Brightman, best known as a singer, had given no hints of training problems or other issues that would prevent her from flying, although there had been rumors reported in the Russian media that she was not as well prepared as Takamatsu.