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In what is being called the Like A Virgin Galactic
first celebrity space flight, pop singer Madonna has paid her way
into space. When the Material Girl was turned down for a space tourism
flight to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2006 by the Russian
space agency DUMA, Madonna decided to enlist the help of Sir Richard
Branson of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Galactic.
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Madonna becomes the first celebrity space tourist
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Virgin Galactic is partnering with Burt Rutan's Scaled
Composites in order to build SpaceShipTwo
upon which, the pop singer will be flying. Estimated costs for the
first flight range from $500,000 to a cool $1 million, but a pittance
compared to the $20 million that Madonna would have had to shell
out for a trip to the ISS. Scaled Composites was the first company
to put a commercial spaceship into space with their record-setting
SpaceShipOne.
Test flights of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft have been hurried to
accommodate the pop diva's heavy touring season this summer. According
to Madonna, "I'm a virgin when it comes to space and this would
be incredible if it weren't a stupid April Fools joke". And,
so there you have it, another fake news report at exactly the time
of year that one should be the most skeptical.
Posted April 1, 2007
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