Posted on 03/17/2005 3:23:43 AM PST by wingblade
At New York International Auto Show, Thursday, March 24, 11:50 a.m.
WHAT: Volvo Cars of North America will be joined by billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson to unveil the winner of a trip on a sub-orbital flight to space on Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic.
WHEN: Thursday, March 24, 2005 11:50 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. (video and still photographers should arrive at 11:35 a.m. for positioning)
WHERE: Volvo Cars of North America Level 3, Booth 204 2005 New York International Auto Show Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 11th Ave. between 34th & 39th Sts. New York City.
WHO: Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman, The Virgin Group of Companies, Ann Belec, president and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. Winner of trip to space. (to be revealed at news conference)
VISUAL: Branson will enter the stage in an out of this world fashion.
WHY: During the 2005 Super Bowl, Volvo introduced its new V8-powered Volvo XC90 SUV with an out of this world sweepstakes to win a flight to space on a Virgin Galactic space ship. The ad, featuring Sir Richard Branson as an astronaut piloting a rocket ship, encouraged people to enter for the trip at www.boldlygo.com. More than 135,000 aspiring astronauts registered for the trip, valued at $200,000. Virgin Galactic -- one of the world's first commercial space tourism operators -- plans to debut commercial space fligh within the next two to three years. The sweepstakes winners will receive astronaut training and will fly on one of Virgin Galactic's initial voyages. During the flight, he or she will experience weightlessness, view the stars above and see planet Earth below.
Space tourism ping
I'm waiting too! All my fingers and toes are crossed.
Burger King and all other restaurants and in fact the entire packaged food industry could begin to feature outer space in its advertising. Put the little robot toys in a lunar or martian environment. The children would see the images of space everywhere. Pizza Hut painted its logo on a launch vehicle several years ago, but that is a mere beginning. Disney, who was the actual populizer of manned spaceflight before there was a manned spaceflight program, could get seriously back in the space business.
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