Excerpt / Summary Star-gazing is about to take on a whole new meaning.
Celebs can’t wait to put themselves into orbit — with A-listers lining up for seats aboard billionaire and extraplanetary entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic ship, which is slated to blast off this year.
More than 500 aspiring astronauts — including a cadre of celeb space cadets — are reaching for the stars by shelling out $200,000 for a 2 1/2-hour voyage with six minutes of weightlessness.
Reaching new heights of celebrity will be one small step for these superstars — and one giant leap for superstardom.
Justin Bieber: Considering his recent space-case behavior, it should come as no surprise that the Biebs wants to launch himself into orbit. His manager Scooter Braun also signed up, and was so excited that he tweeted “I’m going to space momma."
Ashton Kutcher: Kutcher signed up last year as Virgin Galactic’s 500th customer — and got a personal thank-you call and blog post from Branson himself. “He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself,” Branson wrote.
Stephen Hawking: The legendary astrophysicist accepted a free Virgin Galactic ticket not only to fulfill his own dream of going into space, but to raise awareness for what he sees as humanity’s vital mission to explore the stars. “I don’t think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet,” he said. “I therefore want to encourage public interest in space and I’ve been getting my training in early.”
Russell Brand: It’s no surprise the professional nut-job wants to roll his marbles around in outer space. Before he broke up with her via text message, Brand’s ex Katy Perry bought him the Virgin Galactic ticket as a 35th birthday present. “It just doesn’t seem right coming from my background,” Brand said of the trip to space. “Ten years ago I was a junkie; if I wanted to go to space I had to do crack.”
Justin Bieber and his manager have both reserved seats. ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES Justin Bieber and his manager have both reserved their seats. Katy Perry: Well this could get awkward! Not content to have Russell go to space alone, Perry ended up buying herself a ticket a year later. Soon after, they divorced — but Perry hasn’t said anything about swapping her Virgin Galactic seat for lots of free miles within the troposphere. “I’m so into extraterrestrial stuff,” she said. “It’s very difficult for me to look up into the sky in the middle of the night and not think that our planet is one of… a bajillion.”
Brangelina: Jolie — a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees — likely won’t make contact with any real aliens during her brief space flight, but if she does, those extraterrestrials ought to consider themselves lucky. And Pitt might feel the need to flee Earth considering the reviews for his would-be summer blockbuster “World War Z.” A $200,000 ticket is a lot cheaper than a $400 million bomb.
Kate Winslet: The pregnant Kate Winslet managed to snag free seats for her family on Virgin Galactic thanks to her hubby, Ned Rocknroll, who serves as the space tourism company’s “head of marketing and astronaut experience” — and happens to be Branson’s newphew. Their little bundle of joy also has a spot on the joyride.
Leonardo DiCaprio: Leo has the benefit of knowing his crewmate. The starry-eyed heartthrob will blast off with Russian real estate broker Vasily Klyukin, 37, who snatched up the second seat in a charity auction in Cannes for $1.5 million. “I want to be a bit daring,” Klyukin said after becoming DiCaprio’s honorary copilot. “I will have to give up smoking now for sure!”
Lance Bass: More than a decade has passed since the Bass-tronaut’s dreams of space travel came crashing down when he got booted from cosmonaut training for failing to pay his $20-million tuition. Like poor Pluto, which is no longer considered a planet, Bass is not quite the heavenly body he once thought he was.
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TWEETS FROM OUTER SPACE:
Katy Perry has reportedly purchased her ticket. “I’m so into extraterrestrial stuff,” said the singer. PAUL BUCK/EPA Katy Perry has reportedly purchased her ticket. “I’m so into extraterrestrial stuff,” said the singer. Why spend $200,000 going to space when you can tweet at aliens from the comforts of your own planet?
Curious earthlings can now use a massive antenna to transmit short, Twitter-like messages 17.6 light years away to a distant solar system that could boast life-sustaining planets.
“Do you have answers? All we’ve got are questions,” writes one user of the new service, dubbed Lone Signal.
“Yo dudes come over and party. Bring beer,” writes another.
Lone Signal co-founder and SoHo fashion photographer Pierre Fabre leased California’s Jamesburg Earth Station — which beamed in images from the first moon landing in 1969 — to send brief dispatches toward the star Gliese 526.
It’s a geeky project with a trendy following: Scenester actress Paz de la Huerta even appears in a slickly produced promotional video talking about being “in love with this one alien I keep talking to.”
Fabre is proud to put what could be man’s first encounter with extraterrestrials in the hands of the hashtag set.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie might be passengers aboard Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ship, which is scheduled for blastoff later this year. ANDREAS RENTZ/GETTY IMAGES FOR PARAMOUNT PICTURES Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie might be passengers aboard Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceship, which is scheduled for blastoff later this year. “Hipsters are generally underestimated,” says Fabre.
By logging onto LoneSignal.com, anyone can write a message of up to 144 characters send it into space. The first message is free. Additional messages are 25 cents each, less if purchased in bulk.
There is no censorship of any kind, so users are free to insult, or seduce, a potentially dangerous alien race.
“When they hit transmit, they are in control of that dish,” says Fabre. “If we’re talking to a race of lobsters, I don’t think there's any point in censoring nudity or pornography.”
Lone Signal is not without critics, and some have said it’s foolhardy to broadcast our exact location to an unknown intelligence. While such calling cards have been sent into space before, Lone Signal is the first time a beam is being continuously targeted at a single star.
Proponents say the risks are greatly exaggerated. “Any intelligent beings out there could pick us up just by the lights of our big cities,” says in Lone Signal’s chief marketing officer, Ernesto Qualizza. “Arguments about inviting an alien invasion are based on man’s hubris.” |