Sarah Brightman: my countdown to being a real Starship Trooper She added: "It's been extremely inspiring and sort of a relief for me as well to be able to do something like this." The ex-wife of Lord Lloyd-Webber will become by far the most famous "civilian" space traveller to date and only the second British woman in space after Helen Sharman, a research chemist from Sheffield, who beat 13,000 others in a competition to fly to the Mir space station in 1991. The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-11 space ship (AP) If all goes to plan, Brightman's flight is booked for autumn 2015, when she will be strapped into a Russian Soyuz rocket and blasted into orbit from the Kazakhstan steppes. From the start, her planned flight has caused controversy. The Russians have denied rumours that she "bumped" an American astronaut from the flight by outbidding NASA, and the trip has criticised as a stunt to promote the singer's album and world tour. Last week, the space agency Roscosmos said the planned schedule may change, requiring the team to spend a month in orbit. The longer stint would be unsuitable for tourists such as Brightman. However, following that announcement, she insisted that having passed all the necessary medical and physical tests she remains, very much a "cosmonaut in training." She said she had been interested in space travel ever since being transfixed by the moon landings, as an eight-year-old, growing up in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. "When I experienced that it gave me an incredible understanding of what human beings were capable of," she added. It stopped me from worrying about all the mundane things that human beings do on this earth, even as a child getting up for school, I knew that beyond there was a wonderment. I started to really have a goal in my own life. She had long booked one of the first £120,000 tickets on Virgin Galactic's planned, suborbital flights, but with no firm programme yet in place, she was intrigued by the news last year that for around £20 million the Russians were offering a spare seat on their Soyuz. When I first was asked to do it, I thought 'I don't think so. It's a really important step to take. But the second time I felt ready. She submitted herself to tests in Houston, passing with flying colours. The doctor, who's worked with a lot of the astronauts who've been up for years, was saying I don't believe this. Even on the brain scans you're coming out perfect."" A zero-gravity simulator, Russian IL-76 MDK aircraft used for astronauts' training flights in weightlessness (AFP) The next step was two weeks training, last July, at Star City in Russia, the space centre on the outskirts of Moscow that has prepared every Russian cosmonaut since Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space in 1961. There, Brightman replicated conditions of the space flight, spinning in a centrifuge at 170mph and withstanding eight times the force of gravity, in preparation for take off, which former astronauts on the craft describe as "like having a bear sitting on your chest." She also spent 10 minutes in a rotating chair and underwent a series of psychological tests. It was full on. I didn't know what to expect but it was far more than I expected. But I'd already sort of been trained for it by all my years of touring, in terms of the uncomfortableness, not knowing what to expect, having to create something out of nothing. Brightman is due to return to Star City for a further six months training in 2014. It will involve a gruelling course of fitness training, practical courses on living in space and emergency drills. As well as undergoing nauseating zero gravity simulations on a training aircraft known as the 'vomit comet," she will need to learn to operate the complicated vacuum-operated in-flight lavatories. She said she was not able to disclose full details of the diet and exercise regime she has been required to follow since "for security reasons" but added, cryptically, that they "did stuff with paper clips." Everyone's fascinated by the food side of things, I don't know that much yet, but I do know they create food for your taste up there, they like you to be as happy as possible, as some of the cosmonauts are up there for six months. Sometimes they swap food, the Japanese may feel like an American meal one night so they'll swap their food allocation. There will be two other astronauts in the craft with Brightman, during the two days it takes to get to the space station. Conditions have been described as like "three men crammed into the front of a Mini with their knees up." She added: "Doing the centrifuge, I was completely calm, my heart rate hardly went out at all, I didn't have a problem with it. I didn't know how I'd deal with the claustrophobia either being shut into the air compression chamber, but I felt most relaxed, almost sleepy in those confined areas. The singer began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot-Gossip, with whom she released the song I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper in 1978, before becoming a star of the West End and Broadway, and later relaunching herself as a classical singer. She and Lord Lloyd Webber divorced in 1990, after six years. Brightman, who now lives in Los Angeles and whose fortune has been estimated at £30 million, will not reveal the financial details of the flight, simply saying it has been made possible through her own fortune and sponsorship. Read the full interview with Sarah Brightman in Seven magazine next week