Justin Bieber is going to space, and he may even shoot a music video in the final frontier.
The teen pop star is the latest celebrity to sign up for a suborbital flight to the edge of space aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, joining actors Angeline Jolie, Ashton Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio.
"Great to hear @justinbieber & @scooterbraun are latest @virgingalactic future astronauts. Congrats, see you up there!" Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic's billionaire founder, tweeted Wednesday (June 5). (Scooter Braun, Bieber's manager, has also booked a flight.)
Bieber responded with an idea whose seriousness is tough to gauge.
"@richardbranson @scooterbraun @virgingalactic let's shoot a music video in SPACE!! #nextLEVEL," the pop star tweeted to his more than 40 milion Twitter followers.
Seats aboard the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo currently sell for $250,000. To date, more than 600 people have put deposits down to reserve a spot, according to Virgin Galactic's website. However, the space plane hasn't launched anyone to space just yet it's currently in the testing phase, with crewed flights expected to begin by the end of this year.
SpaceShipTwo is designed to fly to suborbital space and back, not make a full trip around the Earth. Passengers will experience several minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of our planet's limb against a black sky, Virgin Galactic officials say.
The spacecraft made its first rocket-powered test flight in April and should begin commercial operations soon, officials say. Branson has said he and his family will be aboard th vehicle's landmark maiden voyage to space.
SpaceShipTwo is the successor to SpaceShipOne, a smaller test vehicle that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for becoming the first private manned spacecraft to carry people to space and back twice within the span of two weeks.
Virgin Galactic isn't the only game in town when it comes to commercial suborbital spaceflight. XCOR Aerospace is developing a one-passenger space plane called Lynx, which may be up and running around the same time as SpaceShipOne.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on SPACE.com.
Photos: Virgin Galactic's 1st SpaceShipTwo Powered Flight Test How Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Passenger Space Plane Works (Infographic) Now Boarding: The Top 10 Private Spaceships Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Blog List
-
Kaley Cuoco Shows Off Fit Physique In Skin-Revealing Yoga Outfit - By Suzy Byrne Kaley Cuoco leaving yoga class in L.A. on Monday. (X17online.com)Kaley Cuoco gave new meaning to hot yoga on Monday when she emerged from cla...10 years ago
Pageviews
Popular Posts
-
When the evening news anchor said "Big Brother is watching," little Jake thought that meant something totally different. [More fro...
-
DETROIT (AP) Ex-U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Detroit and six other former Congress members are presiding over hearings on the exis...
-
(Reuters) - Apple Inc shares fell 3.9 percent on Friday after the iPhone 5 debuted in China to a cool reception and two analysts cut shipmen...
-
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese court has fined Apple Inc 1 million yuan ($160,400) for hosting third-party applications on its App Store t...
-
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday that it began selling Apple Inc's flagship iPhone 5 smartphone at a b...
-
HONOLULU (AP) Actor Jim Nabors says marrying his longtime male partner doesn't change anything about their relationship he just wanted i...
-
A cat stuck in a box. A dramatic reading of Fifty Shades of Grey from George Takei. And another "Gangnam Style" remix. These are j...
-
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya was grossly inadequate to deal with a September 11 attack that killed...
-
LONDON (Reuters) - An Italian magazine said on Tuesday it will publish pictures of a pregnant Duchess of Cambridge wearing a bikini on holid...
-
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Leah Remini 's new TV gig is already giving her a headache, months before it even starts. Former "King...