Mike, Astronaut

"Yeah, right! Like, Mike's been into space. As if."

This is a common, and rather ignorant, reaction to my claim to be an astronaut. What people don't realise is that there's a lot more to being an astronaut than just going into space.

Nasa has many astronauts that haven't been into space. This is because Nasa trains more astronauts than they send into space. They have to. They must always ensure that at any one time they have enough fully trained astronauts for any missions that they want to do in the future. And what if on the day of a launch one astronaut goes down with a bit of a cold? They need to make sure they've got a substitute.

Now, I don't work for Nasa, nor will I ever do so and they're not going to train me to be an astronaut. But there are more ways into space than through Nasa. It is my intension to buy a spaceflight on Virgin Galactic, a service that is already taking bookings for sub-orbital space flights in 2008. These flights are a bit pricey but I'm already saving up my money and so far have put aside £83.74 for the trip.

So, you can see, like Nasa trained astronauts that haven't yet gone into space, I am currently making my preparations. And that in anybody's books makes me an astronaut.

Mike