What's better than a first class upgrade? Try Space Class.

Space: The final frontier. And the next one for Scott Copeland, a regular guy who works at a bank in Victoria, Australia.

Selected from thousands of submissions to a Virgin Australia competition for a spot aboard Virgin Atlantic's first commercial shuttle, Copeland's story about an elementary school teacher discouraging his dream to become an astronaut ultimately won over the contest's judges.

Along with a seat aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, the admitted space geek will receive Velocity Frequent Flier status, and training at New Mexico's Spaceport prior to lift-off. Copeland will even get to watch some of the spaceship's construction.

Oh, and because making people eat crow is awesome, Copeland tracked down his dream-crushing teacher, who apparently had forgotten the whole ordeal. She's now happy for him (and probably super jealous, since teachers aren't astronauts).

Thus far, the trip has no departure date, but Copeland is already calling himself an astronaut.

“I am really looking forward to the whole experience which includes four days of training at the Spaceport America in New Mexico in preparation for the space flight itself", he told news.com.au. "Having those days to bond with my fellow Astronauts during zero gravity and G-Force training will be a great experience prior to boarding SpaceShipTwo for our flight into space".

Of course, in this case, it's more about the destination than the journey.

“The part I am anticipating the most will be when we can unbuckle our belts and float in total weightlessness while taking in the expanse of the Earth. Many astronauts who have had the opportunity to do this say seeing the world from space can change your perspective on life", he said.

You can keep track of Scott's journey to space here.