A 65-YEAR-OLD Limerick man who originally hails from Fairgreen is to fulfill his lifelong dream next year when he is set to take a trip into suborbital space.
Cyril Bennis, who now lives in Stratford-upon-Avon in the UK with his American wife Roxanne, came one step closer to his goal this week when he completed his space training in the USA.
Musician and former Stratford-upon-Avon Mayor Cyril attended the National Aerospace Training and Research Centre (NASTAR) in Philadelphia where he earned his Sub Orbital wings.
He told Limerick Post: “I had to undergo training to deal with the pressures of being blasted into space. I did zero gravity training in Florida, then the opposite to that is the g-force training where you’re blasted off at seven to eight Gs. I’m still coming down to earth after it.”
Cyril is set to make a two-hour trip to suborbital space accompanied by a pilot at some stage in 2014.
He explained: “I’m just an ordinary person who wants to achieve his dream of going into space. Ordinary people are allowed to sign up to do this training as long as they are medically fit and have made sure that they are able to sustain the pressure of the g-force.
“For this flight you are blasted off in a Lynx suborbital spacecraft at about five to six Gs with a pilot, then you can float around in the outer circles of space for about two hours and come back.”
