Software developer Symantec announced Wednesday the winner of its contest to send someone into space: Jorge Patricio León López, who was selected from 30 finalists after participating in a weightless aircraft flight by Zero-G. As the press release claims, “In addition to being one of the first to participate in a commercial space travel flight, León could be the first Chilean in space as no Chilean has participated in a space flight at this time.”
But, as you might expect, there’s a catch. The suborbital flight that León won is provided by Space Adventures, which (as noted here a few months ago), isn’t emphasizing the suborbital side of its business, so it’s not at all clear when León might fly, and how. That would, though, follow a trend of Chilean efforts get one of its citizens in space: for several years Klaus Von Storch waited for everything to come together for a slot on a Soyuz mission to the ISS; that article was written in 2006 and, three years later, he still is grounded. Hopefully, when either Von Storch or León flies, they don’t end up like this fellow.
The first female Brazilian to go into orbit is Veronique Koken. She is the Pilot on the “America’s Launch” mission scheduled for Feb. 20 2012.
Craig Russell