Air hostess wins space trip
2008-07-17 08:41
Paris - A French air hostess will become
one of Europe's pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate
wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a
competition to fly to the upper reaches of the earth's
atmosphere.
Mathilde Epron, 32, said she had bought a Kit Kat chocolate
bar at her local supermarket but initially threw the wrapper in
the bin, telling herself that "it's only others who win".
Two hours later, thinking back to the competition, she
decided to try her luck and fished the wrapper out of the bin,
only to find a code marked inside.
"For someone who works in air travel it's really a dream
come true", she told France Info radio.
A spokesperson for Nestle in France confirmed that Epron had
won the prize to take a flight on a four-seater, fighter-sized
aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft
intended to provide cheap flights into space.
She will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma
City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP
aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100km and
allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.