Irish rock singer, author, and political activist Bob Geldof has led an extremely eventful and successful life so far. Geldof, frontman of the Irish rock band “The Boomtown Rats”, gained popularity throughout the 70’s and 80’s for his unique brand of ‘New Wave’ vocals and has been continuing to ride that ‘new wave’ of success ever since. However, the announcement Geldof made yesterday sounded like it would truly be an “out of this world experience”.

Yesterday, Sir Bob Geldof commented in an interview with a British publication called “The Telegraph”, that he is a confirmed passenger on board of XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx rocket ship. The XCOR Aerospace Lynx is part of the fleet of rockets responsible for catering commercial space flights in a company known as Space Expedition Corp., or SXC. The first public flights are scheduled to launch sometime in 2014. Vessels like the two-seater “Lynx” will undergo various tests before being put into practice.

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Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Throughout Geldof’s career he has diligently worked towards helping remedy the poverty crisis throughout Africa, sometimes founding and others just helping organizations to raise money. Sir Geldof is responsible for founding the super-group ‘Band-Aid’, as well as the ‘Live Aid’ and ‘Live 8’ concerts that benefitted causes like famine relief in Ethiopia. He has also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, and not to mention the fact that he starred as the protagonist Pink in the film “Pink Floyd’s The Wall”.

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The Dutch Based SXC has claimed to have sold over 250 tickets, of which they were proud to say that Geldof was included. The flights are speculated to only last around an hour with the concept of a traditional airplane. Spacecraft like the “Lynx” are designed to take off on a runway, climbing the Earth’s atmosphere until reaching the point of zero gravity. Upon reentry the vessel will also land in an airplane runway fashion.

SXC prices are said to run close to around $100,000 and all future passengers must commit to training in flight simulations in order to participate in this ground breaking new experience.

Lead image: Wikimedia Commons