“I am very happy with such an achievement which I am honoured to dedicate to my beloved country Egypt,” said Egyptian adventurer and mountaineer Omar Samra, who will now be able to also add astronaut to his already impressive list of achievements, after being chosen by the AXE Apollo Space Academy to fly into space. Samra, 35, won his ticket along with 22 other recipients of free trips to space and back again. “I'm looking forward to representing my homeland in space soon,” Samra said. “My extensive experience in addition to my fitness, gained throughout my trips and mountaineering, have helped me to cope well with the mental and physical challenges we [the participants] engaged in during the last stages of the competition in Orlando.” In 2007 Samra became the first Egyptian to climb Mount Everest. He also completed the Seven Summits Challenge in May 2013, climbing the highest mountains on all seven continents. In addition to his record-breaking exploits, Samra is also a public speaker and entrepreneur. He founded Wild Guanabana in 2009, a travel company specialising in the design of creative and adventure travel experiences around the globe. For the past week, 112 participants from 68 countries around the world took part in the final round of the competition which included mental aptitude tests, combat training in a fighter jet and zero-gravity flights to distinguish themselves as the most worthy of the coveted tickets to space. The trip is sponsored by the Space Expedition Corporation under a project by the makers of Axe Apollo body spray. Out of the more than 650,000 applicants who signed up to AXE's Global Space Academy, hoping to be chosen for a once-in-a-lifetime trip into space, only 112, including an Egyptian trio, won a place at the final round which was a week-long space camp in Florida last week. In addition to Samra, Egyptians Ahmed “Haggagovic” Haggag, an adventurer and traveller, and Ahmed Khaled, a lawyer, made it through the final round after winning the only three regional tickets available in the last stage in Orlando. They competed against 112 other finalists in a series of space-simulation challenges. However, Haggagovic and Khaled, failed to advance, leaving Samra the first and only Egyptian astronaut. “I wish my Egyptian colleagues Khaled and Haggagovic could have succeeded. Reaching the last stage, however, was already an honour for them,” Samra said. The 650,000 signed up worldwide for the Space Academy by creating a profile on the competition's website saying why they should be chosen to travel into space. The trio gained the highest number of regional votes to qualify for the challenge. Later they passed gravity and natural stamina tests to reach the final. On his Facebook page, Samra wrote, “Tonight was one of those epic moments in a man's life, when you get the privilege to go to a place where few have. After many months of hard work and perseverance I have won the opportunity to fly 100km above sea level and into outer space,” the adventurer said. Prior to the final round, the Ministry of Defence announced it would train the Egyptian trio to have them ready for the last stage. “The Ministry of Defence,” says Samra, “played an active role in training the Egyptian participants on the challenges that had been expected to face us in the final stage of the competition. That training significantly contributed to my victory and also to an appropriate performance of the Egyptian duo in the last stage. “The flight test was my favourite one, in which the fighter aircraft manoeuvres and spins in the air with sharp deviations so as to measure the ability of bearing the acceleration,” Samra said. After a year-long competition, and one week of astronaut training, the lucky winners of the 23 tickets were announced at the AXE Apollo Space Academy on 5 December in the rocket garden at the Kennedy Space Centre. A ticket on the Lynx usually costs $95,000. Samra, along with 22 chosen participants, will travel into the forever mysterious abyss that is space on the Space Expedition Corporation's XCOR Aerospace Lynx aircraft — the same type of aircraft is marked to begin flying customers into outer space in 2015. AXE, owned by Unilever and whose deodorant brand is known as LYNX in some parts of the world, announced it was moving into the decidedly more adult realm of space tourism by naming 83-year-old astronaut Buzz Aldrin, pilot of the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon in 1969, as its brand ambassador. The 23 winners of the AXE Apollo Space Academy will join Aldrin, one of the first men to walk on the moon, on an adventure in space. “Space travel for everyone is the next frontier in human experience,” says Aldrin. “I'm thrilled that AXE is giving young people of today such an extraordinary opportunity to experience some of what I've encountered in space.” Samra is making history as Egypt has never had an astronaut. In 1998 Egypt became the first country in the Middle East and Africa to launch a satellite, NileSat 101. Two years later NileSat 102 was launched to provide telecommunications services, digital broadcasting (direct-to-home) and broadband services in North Africa, the Middle East and the Gulf. “After returning from space, God willing, I hope to transfer space experience and technology for Egypt to benefit from it. I also plan to give talks in schools and universities about my experience in the hope of inspiring a brighter and better generation to follow their dreams and to show anything is possible with hard work and persistence,” says Samra.
