Bob Geldof, singer, campaigner, and possibly the first Irishman to be in space. Image via Wikimedia Commons
Singer and campaigner Bob Geldof is to be the first Irishman in space, now that he’s booked a US$100,000 seat on next year’s commercial space flight by Space Expedition Corporation (SXC).
SXC is hoping to fly 100 people to a peak of 103 kilometres (338,000 miles) above the Earth after taking off from a runway in Curacao in the Southern Caribbean sea.
“Being the first Irishman in space is not only a fantastic honour but pretty mind-blowing,” Sky News reported the former Boomtown Rats frontman as having said.
“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,” he added.
The passengers aboard the one-hour flight will travel on the Lynx X2 privately built spacecraft.
Geldof will begin training in a space flight simulator based in the Netherlands this coming weekend.
His fellow passengers reportedly include DJ Armin van Buuren and model Doutzen Kroes.
