'First singer in space': Countdown begins for Sarah Brightman's 2015 flight

British singer Sarah Brightman will begin training this fall to become the first singer to perform in space when she flies out to the International Space Station in September 2015.

Brightman, 53, the famed soprano who rose to international fame as the female lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, will pay about US$52mil (RM167.8mil) for a 10-day stay aboard the orbital outpost, Tom Shelley, president of privately-owned Space Adventures, said on June 10.