Justin Bieber signs up for trip to space, Virgin Galactic founder says
Justin Bieber in space? Make it
so, Virgin Galactic!
Virgin's billionaire founder,
Richard Branson, reported in a
Twitter tweet that the teenage
pop star and his agent, Scooter
Braun, have signed up to
suborbital spaceflights: "Great to
hear justinbieber & scooterbraun are latest
@virgingalactic future
astronauts," Branson wrote.
"Congrats, see you up there!"
"Let's shoot a music video in
SPACE!!" Bieber replied via
Twitter.
The singer's space aspirations
aren't exactly out of the blue: In
February, he told his 40 million
Twitter followers, "I wanna do a
concert in space." To which
NASA replied, "Maybe we can
help you with that."
At the age of 19, Bieber's net
worth is estimated at $110
million, thanks to the success of
songs such as "Baby" and the
adulation of millions of fans
(a.k.a. Beliebers). The fare for a
ride on Virgin Galactic's
SpaceShipTwo rocket plane
recently went up from $200,000
to $250,000 , but even the
higher price tag shouldn't be
much of a problem for the
Canadian-born heartthrob.
SpaceShipTwo went through its
first supersonic, rocket-powered
flight test in California in April,
and it's expected to begin
commercial operations at
Spaceport America in New
Mexico as early as next year.
The ride would send Bieber and
Braun beyond 62 miles (100
kilometers) in altitude, which
marks the internationally
accepted boundary of outer
space. At that height, passengers
would feel a few minutes of
weightlessness, get a view of the
curving Earth beneath a black
sky, and then experience a
roller-coaster ride back down to
a runway landing.
