Dear Santa
Can you help me? I would really like to go into space but not as high or for as long as Tim Peake.
This is how a child would start a Christmas list looking through rose tinted spectacles with their dreams and ambitions still intact, untainted and uncontaminated by the world. I'm not the man they think I am at home. I am a child trapped in an adult's body and I still dream. I'm not the only one.
Although I doubt your existence I believe in belief as a force for good and unfortunately for bad. I want to be good and I want to help others in my own unique way. Please please help me become the first Welsh born UK resident person in space regardless of all my reservations and concerns.
I am scared of heights. I don't like enclosed spaces and I don't enjoy being the centre of attention but I am willing to overcome my fears and even risk my life to do something that I believe in. I pledge to pay £25,000 towards the £100,000 XCOR Space Expeditions ticket price to fly to space and I am looking for commercial sponsors only to bridge the remaining cost. If you are interested in sponsoring me then email here or message me in my Facebook page. I would be eternally grateful. You would pretty much own me.
Why not just spend the £25,000 on good causes?
This is a significant amount of money for most ordinary people including myself. I have never asked for and don't want public donations because these are the very people I am trying to help. I am not rich or famous and I don't have £25,000 but I am willing to borrow that amount because I believe it would be money well spent when you consider the potential payback. The worldwide space industry is predicted to be worth £400 billion by 2030. The UK has ambitions to capture 10% of the market. Just over 20,000 are employed in Wales in aerospace and defence related industries. Universities with research and development linked to hi tech companies are replacing the old heavy industry engines of the first industrial revolution. Wales could even be the location for the UK's first spaceport and once again be the cradle for the next industrial revolution, the space revolution.
I support a spaceport in North Wales not just because it is light years ahead of the rival locations but because the people of Wales deserve it. This isn't just about just bringing tangible benefits like jobs and money into communities. This is about bringing hope. To help inspire the younger generation XCOR Space Expeditions proposed donating a number of talks to Welsh universities if I managed to raise the required ticket price. Dreams and ambitions need to be achievable and there needs to be a purpose. The future needs to better than the past and present and I want to help inspire Wales to be a part of then next tentative steps in space to benefit everyone. Regardless of whether I succeed or not I have asked to be included in a humanitarian mission to Africa in 2016. We are only here for a short time and it would be criminal to not make a difference.
I choose to go to space not because it is easy but because it is hard. It is the most ridiculous, idiotic, impossible thing that I have ever attempted. I am the most unlikely astronaut ever. Unsure and scared, not worthy, out of place, an alien alone in a crowd. The thought of actually succeeding terrifies me.
I am you in someone else but if by some miracle I could make it into space then what could you achieve?
My advice to everyone, old or young regardless of gender, race, religion, sexuality or other demographics is as follows. Don't let go of your dreams. Don't take no for an answer. Don't lose hope. Take small steps towards your dream because even if you don't reach your destination at least you are moving in the right direction.
You have no idea how bright you shine.
Incinerating the void and setting fire to the dark.
Burning brilliantly flawed.
Taffanaut age 48 ½ yrs
