Donning an astronaut helmet, flying in a spaceship, and heading to the stars is what most children grow up dreaming about.
But fewer than 1,000 people have had their ambition of taking a space voyage become a reality.
Melbourne man Scott Copeland, however, is going to break into that exclusive club.
And in doing so, he is fulfilling a childhood dream while aged in his 50s.
"It took me a really long time to get my head around that," Mr Copeland told ABC News Breakfast.
Mr Copeland is a senior banker with ANZ in Melbourne's north-east, and almost by accident, he will be jetting away with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
"When I started to tell people they didn't believe it," he said.
"It was just amazing."
In 2014, he got an email from Virgin Australia that was sent to all of its frequent fliers.
The email read, 'Upgrade to space class,' but Mr Copeland did not quite read it that way.
"I thought, 'Oh great, upgrade to first class,'" he said.
"[But] when I went into it, it's like … you actually getting an upgrade to fly on Virgin Galactic."
To be in with a chance to get a ticket, he had to sell his story, explaining why he should be among the select few to get that upgrade to "space class".
"Because back in 1979, I was laughed at when I proclaimed I'd be an astronaut."
That story of being laughed at in primary school won Mr Copeland a ticket to space.
And Mr Copeland kept his word.
He contacted his former school, Banyule primary, to get in contact with his grade five teacher, Marilyn Mooney.
He had not been to the school in more than 30 years.
"They put me on to the teachers union and the teachers union was able to track her down," he said.
Ms Mooney remembered teaching a young Mr Copeland. After all, his class was the very first she taught.
"That was her first year of teaching," he said.
How do you train for a trip to space?
Mr Copeland joked he had been watching a lot of Star Wars while preparing to fly in a year's time.
But the guide on his travel itinerary recommends a bit more than a few hours of pop-culture viewing.
Mr Copeland said he had received a lot of information from the team at Virgin Galactic about what to expect.
"One of the things that they're really conscious of is just prepar[ing] mindfully," he said.
"They say going up into space, it's such an unusual event for most people that you really need to be aware of your surroundings."
He said the advice he had received was just to be really focused on those 10 minutes he would be floating around in the cabin.
A lifelong dream fulfilled
But Mr Copeland is ready. He has been chomping at the bit to experience space travel since winning the ticket in 2014.
And this week he stayed up past midnight to watch Sir Richard fly into space.
He was excited seeing Sir Richard's test flight succeed. It meant he was closer to getting on board himself.
"I mean, it was, I guess, the culmination of a long seven years for me," Mr Copeland said.
And more than anything, a trip to space had been a dream he thought was beyond him.
Mr Copeland has travelled to the US to experience the next best thing at the Kennedy Space Centre and the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
But now he gets to follow in the footsteps of some of his heroes.
"When you think back across the billions of people who've been on this planet. It's just overwhelming," he said.
