BAIKONUR /Kazakhstan/, March 26. /TASS/. The visit by British singer Sarah Brightman to the International Space Station (ISS) will complicate the crew’s work but will diversify its life, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko said Thursday.
"I have not flown with female tourists yet: my colleague Gennady Ivanovich Padalka probably knows better," Korniyenko said at a traditional preflight news conference.
"But in my view, the visit of a tourist gives the crew extra responsibility: tourists need to be watched attentively, as they are inexperienced and don’t know what and how to do in zero gravity," he said.
"On the other hand, a nice woman, a singer, will fly, and we will sing together. Arrival of such unconventional personalities can always diversify life in orbit," the cosmonaut said.
The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft with a crew of a regular expedition to the ISS on board is to be launched in the evening of March 27. It will carry Russians Padalka and Korniyenko, as well as American Scott Kelly.
Korniyenko and Kelly will spend about a year on board the ISS.
Brightman plans to go to space on September 1, 2015. If her plans are realized, she will become the eighth space tourist in history.