Singer Sarah Brightman calls off space travel on Russia’s Soyuz

British soprano Sarah Brightman has announced that she will postpone her plans to travel to the International Space Station on board Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft citing “personal family reasons”. The classically trained soprano, best known for her starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Phantom of the Opera, paid $52 million for the trip and was due to fly on 1 September.

Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures, the organisation which arranged Brightman’s trip, confirmed that the singer was prepared to take the flight in future. “We’ve seen first-hand her dedication to every aspect of her spaceflight training and to date, has passed all of her training and medical tests,” he said. “We applaud her determination and we’ll continue to support her as she pursues a future spaceflight opportunity.”

Last year, Brightman announced her hopes to become the first musician to perform in space, and revealed plans to compose a song with Webber to sing in space.

Roscosmos officials have confirmed that the flight will go ahead without her, carrying cosmonauts Andreasa Mogensen and Sergei Volkov.