Virgin Australia announces winner of competition to fly to space on Virgin Galactic: Scott Copeland

SHE told him that his dream was impossible to achieve. Thirty six years later he has finally proven his teacher wrong, and made sure she knew about it!

IF YOU’VE ever had a dream that seemed too far out of your reach, keep believing. You never know when it could come true.

That’s the message from Australian traveller Scott Copeland. Since the age of 10, he had a rather ambitious plan: he wanted to travel out of this world, literally.

Thirty six years later his dream has finally come true, with the announcement that he has won the Velocity Frequent Flyer ultimate flight upgrade competition, via Virgin Australia. The win will see him travel to space on a Virgin Galactic spaceship.

Copeland, who lives in Templestowe, Victoria and works at ANZ bank, says getting the call from Virgin was the most surreal experience of his entire life. He’s simply over the moon.

“When I took the call that I actually had won, I was walking through the office on my mobile and literally couldn’t speak for 10 seconds while it sunk in,” Copeland told news.com.au. “I had to run into a meeting room with my mobile phone so I could fist pump the air a few times out of view of my colleagues. Even driving home that night in the car it didn’t feel real and I kept thinking I was going to wake up from a dream and find out it never happened.

“I’ve dreamt of going to space since I was 10, which was during the 70s at the height of the NASA space program. My parents also travelled to Florida in the mid 70s (without me!) and visited the Kennedy Space centre in Cape Canaveral and brought home a lot of books and magazines about space travel which really got me started with an obsession at that time to become an astronaut.”

He says the experience will far eclipse every other bucket list item he’s achieved.

“Over the years I have bungy jumped in New Zealand, hiked to the top of the Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, driven through the Canadian Rockies, skied in powder snow in Austria, seen Michael Jordan play basketball in Chicago and none of these even get close to the thrill of space travel.”

Scott can’t wait to get on board Virgin Galactic. Picture: Scott Copeland

Copeland was so excited to find out that his childhood dream will soon become a reality, that he set about finding a primary school teacher who he says had called his dream impossible.

He contacted the current principal at his primary school but they didn’t have her details on record, so he turned to the local education union, who were able to find her.

Scott at Yosemite.

They arranged to meet up and reminisce, decades since last seeing each other.

“It was great that she actually remembered me although she couldn’t specifically recall our banter about me becoming an astronaut but she did vaguely recall my fascination with space travel in general,” he said. “She was ultimately thrilled for me that I am getting this opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream.

“She did say that she probably should have been more supportive of my dreams back then, although I suggested it’s not like I aced physics at school for this opportunity to become an astronaut and the reality is I ended up in banking rather than working at NASA.”

Scott Copeland and his teacher. Picture: Scott Copeland

Copeland will travel on board SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first commercial manned spaceship, on a date yet to be confirmed. He will have certified astronaut status, and Velocity Frequent Flyer Platinum membership. A visit to the Spaceport in New Mexico is also on the cards.

Virgin Galactic.

He was chosen from thousands of entries from Virgin frequent flying passengers based on his passion for space travel.

“I am really looking forward to the whole experience which includes four days of training at the Spaceport America in New Mexico in preparation for the space flight itself. Having those days to bond with my fellow Astronauts during zero gravity and G-Force training will be a great experience prior to boarding SpaceShipTwo for our flight into space.

“The part I am anticipating the most will be when we can unbuckle our belts and float in total weightlessness while taking in the expanse of the Earth. Many astronauts who have had the opportunity to do this say seeing the world from space can change your perspective on life.”

Road leading up to the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space, Spaceport America, New Mexico.

Ultimately, he says the message he wants to pass to others is to dream big.

“Travel into space just seemed so inaccessible. I think the big message to everyone out there is what seems unlikely now could become common place in 20 years time.”

Taking off.