Why a man is taking his old schoolwork into space

A man who dreamed as a schoolboy of going to space is about to get his wish and will take with him an old exercise book in which he correctly predicted he would one day leave the planet.

Businessman Trevor Beattie's school project will be there when he blasts off on board Virgin Galactic's latest space tourist mission.

He and a bunch of other "Herberts" had spent big for the privilege, he said.

But he added the boy he used to be would be with him for the ride.

Birmingham-born Mr Beattie, 64, an advertising executive, is due to take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Friday.

Under the seat of pilot Kelly Latimer will be Mr Beattie's old schoolwork, in which he left room decades ago to paste newspaper reports of his endeavours, so certain was he that he would go to space.

He first began looking to the stars when he was 11, having become obsessed with NASA's Apollo missions.

He said of his old exercise book from Moseley School of Art: "At the back of my school project, I've got a little kind of dotted rectangle where I'd planned to glue the tiny Birmingham Evening Mail article about 'Brummie lad goes to space', because I fully expected that by the time I was really old, 16 or 17, everyone would be going; it wouldn't be a big deal.

"Not only did I dream of it, I expected it," he added.

His Apollo hero Buzz Aldrin - whose signature adorns his old schoolwork - had been, he said, "rigorously chosen" by NASA.

"The big difference with Galactic is we're a self-selecting bunch of Herberts."

Mr Beattie will become the 667th human being to leave the planet. He said he bought a ticket 18 years ago "when it was considerably cheaper", although the trip was still costing "hundreds of thousands of pounds".

"That's the reality, I'm very proud of that," he explained.

"I was a poor kid, born at Brighton Road, Balsall Heath, and I'm standing in a spaceport in New Mexico and I'm going to space on Friday."

The school exercise book is not the only item that will accompany him.

Mr Beattie said he was taking others that were "very important".

Among them are a photograph of his parents Jack and Ada and a 100-year-old cheque signed by Orville Wright, who achieved the first powered flight, "as a tribute to those who got us there".

He said of his mum and dad: "They've been up there the past few years looking over me and perhaps I'll get a chance... you know."

Mr Beattie is one of three passengers on the flight which is expected to take about two and a half hours.

"I asked one of the moon walkers to give me one piece of advice when I'm up there and he said 'look out of the window, son, look out of the window'.

"So I'm going to be doing a lot of looking out the window."

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