Trevor Beattie - Astronaut 018

From the age of 10, Trevor Beattie had just one ambition – to travel to space. Inspired by the Apollo Moon landings, the young student wrote and illustrated a high school project he titled “The Space Race.” He added news clippings of his Apollo heroes and even left a blank space after the final chapter, where he intended to glue the news clipping of his own spaceflight. Years later, he still has the same zealous ambition – as well as his cherished but slightly tattered school project.

A successful advertising entrepreneur and film producer in the U.K., Trevor has regularly infused his passion for space travel into his work. He made the BAFTA-winning film Moon with director Duncan Jones, son of “Starman” musician David Bowie; ventured to the South Pole with iconic moonwalker Buzz Aldrin; and designed the new logo for the SETI Institute, an organization dedicated to the search for and understanding of life beyond Earth.

A major turning point for Trevor happened in 2004, when he accompanied Sir Richard Branson to witness his win of the Ansari XPRIZE (incentivizing the development of a reliable, reusable, privately financed commercial spaceship). That moment, on the spot, Trevor signed up to fly with Virgin Galactic.

His spacesuit displays the Union Jack flag and City of Birmingham crest. Onboard he brought his prized “Space Race” school project and, to honor the pioneers of flight, carried a check written by Orville Wright (Wright Brothers) to the Division of Water in Dayton, Ohio, in 1923. Having bought the check years ago, he neatly folded it into a paper airplane for its journey to space.