Omar Samra is a man who has accomplished his dreams on Earth, against all odds. Now, he is going to accomplish dreams out of this world.
Samra is a 38-year-old man who lives in Dubai, and is going to be the first Egyptian in space. He will boards the California-based XCOR Aerospace Lynx spacecraft along with 22 other winners of a competition he entered.
Samra entered a competition with over two million people offering a chance of a lifetime on the world's first commercial spacecraft.
He was the only Arab to be selected.
"When I won it felt really surreal because it was such a childhood dream of mine to go into space," he said.
"For somebody who comes from Egypt, we don’t really have a direct route to space – there’s no national space programme or anything like that, so I’d assumed it was an impossible dream."
Samra has always had a soft spot for high peaks with little oxygen. He felt that he missed out on much in his childhood, being a kid with asthma.
Now that he's climbed everest, he says "[...] I imagine that being up in space feels something like [being on Everest]," he said.
"It’s about 12 or 13 times in order of magnitude in terms of how high Everest is. We’re going to be about 103 kilometres above sea level."
Samra was placed in trails for the contest along with 110 finalists. He stayed in Orlando for 5 days "to see how he could cope with life in space."
They were put through many challenges, including space mumbo jumbo (G-force centrifuge), physical and teamwork tests, and physics exams. After these tests, the winners were selected.
"Buzz Aldrin himself handed me the ticket, which was one of the most outstanding moments of my life." Samra said.
The official date for take-off is still unknown, but Samra expects it to be in the next two to three years.
Also joining the winners of the competition on the spacecraft are Live Aid campaigner Sir Bob Geldof and DJ Armin van Buuren.