I thought that Rocketplane was a show on the cartoon network until I read an article this morning reporting that a French Flight Attendant won a trip into sub-orbit with the galactic airline.
First, about the flight attendant: Mathilde Epron was working her daily flight schedule when she grabbed a quick Kit Kat snack, tossed the wrapper in the garbage and went on about her normal duties. Suddenly, struck with a feeling that she should have checked the wrapper, she went back to the trash two hours later, dug out the refuse lo and behold, won one of the first trips into space on fledgling space tourism company, Rocketplane.
Secondly, Virgin Galactic has competition? Where did Rocketplane come from? Tell us more about yourselves and your crazy moniker, Rocketplane, we’re delightfully curious.
Apparently, Ms. Epron is scheduled to get four days of astronaut training at Rocketplanes headquarters in Oklahoma then will be on one of the first flights scheduled in 2010.
Only a shade behind Virgin Galactic, which plans to unveil its White Knight Two later this month and carry passengers in 2009.
If Rocketplace sticks to its guns and testing goes well, we could have an interesting commercial space competition in the next ten years. Maybe all of this competition will drive the price of a flight down from 200-250k down to 100k. Time to start saving!