Four finalists have been chosen from 87,000 applicants from the UK and Ireland to travel to Space Camp in Florida where one final winner will be selected to fly into space with the Lynx Space Academy.
Almost one million votes were cast as thousands competed for their chance to go into space – myself included!
On the hottest weekend of the year, 250 space cadet hopefuls descended upon London’s Westfield, White City to compete for the coveted prized spaces at L.S.A Live. The two-day event, hosted by the gorgeous Charlie Webster, saw the finalists put their paces on a series of gruelling challenges which included being strapped into a gyoscope for 60-seconds of spinning whilst having to deactivate flashing lights, a vertical “moon walk” and a number of stress-fuelled mental tasks to test their focus.
The top ten highest scoring cadets were then whittled down to the final four by a panel of expert judges. The four lucky cadets heading to Florida Space Camp to compete in the final challenge to go to space are – Joshua Ratcliffe, 21, a budding guitarist and student from Manchester, Nadav Eldar, 23, a Philosophy & Japanese student at the University of Leeds, Oliver Knight, 25, an Operations Engineer from Malvern in Worcestershire and Jocelino Rodrigues, a 19 year-old Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Bristol.
Joshua Ratcliffe said, “I have been campaigning since January and was ecstatic to have won a place in the final 250, but to have been chosen to go to Space Camp in America is unbelievable. I study Physics with Astrophysics so this can’t really get much better – it has to be the best day of my life”.
The final four will now participate at the Lynx Global Space Camp in Florida and compete for their chance to go to space. Once chosen, one final winner will break the sound barrier whilst flying 103 kilometres at the maximum airspeed possible. The engine will then cut off and they will see Earth as only 500 have before. The spaceship will reach ‘apogee’ at 103 km, at this point the lucky cadet will experience weightlessness in zero gravity before beginning the descent back to Earth.
Now that is dope!
