Tom Cruise To Be Onboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia That Crashed

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has reportedly cheated death. The actor was supposed to be a part of the crew on board the Space Shuttle Columbia that crashed in 2003, tragically killing all its seven members.

According to a report, Cruise was supposed to join the astronauts of the US space shuttle, which blew up over Texas 13 years ago while re-entering the atmosphere of the earth. The space junkie star had hoped to join the ill fated mission after NASA gave him a secret astronaut training. The induction saw him go through a space suit walking course in a simulated space environment created with a water tank.  

The actor's space ambitions were revealed by film director Toni Myers, who worked with Cruise on the film Space Station 3D. "Tom wanted to be an astronaut, he flies his own GulfStream IV Jet and he's qualified as a pilot," Toni Myers said. "He was very enthusiastic about doing Space Station 3D but the deal was he also wanted to fly in the Space Shuttle. He had a very good chance of doing so but then the accident happened and that was the end of that."

Incidentally, the Hollywood star has always been keen about astronomy and been a part of many sci-fi films, including the 2013 release Oblivion where he played the role of an astronaut. Interestingly, the Top Gun star is also a big believer of aliens, and feels that it is arrogant to think we are the only living beings in the Universe, "but I've never met one" he has said.

Cruise, who is a scientologist, apparently also forced the American space agency to redesign their entire website during the early 2000s. In addition, once the actor had let out his plan to pay $191245 for a ticket on the Virgin Galactic space flight by Richard Branson, However, his recent status about the same flight is not known, especially in the wake of the failed test flight killing the co-pilot in 2014.

The Columbia Space Shuttle exploded due to a broken piece of its foam insulation striking the craft's left wing. However, it is not clearly known why Tom Cruise actually did not make the flight, luck perhaps.