Stewardess has Wonka-esque ticket to ride

What would be better than scoring the last Golden Ticket into Willy Wonka’s fictional candy factory? Try a real-life ticket to space, the final frontier, for one French ‘air hostess.’ (Sorry, but that brings Twinkies to mind; let’s stick with stewardess, just for retro fun.)

The hungry sky worker grabbed a Kit Kat bar at a local French supermarket and snarfed down the chocolate, not thinking about Nestle’s space race contest until the sugar high wore off. A couple of hours later, she returned to the scene of the snack, and found the winning wrapper in the refuse. The ticket wins her a seat on the Rocketplane XP, part of an developing project to bring economical space travel to the masses—because we as a species have apparently already achieved cheap, comfortable, punctual air travel here on earth.

The high-flying choco-fan also receives several days of training like an astronaut in Oklahoma City, which may be more of a culture shock for her than the actual trip into space. Let’s just hope when she gets to claim her final prize, she overcomes the urge to make sure everyone is strapped in securely with their cell phones turned off.


Today, six dozen fish discovered they had the right stuff when German scientists launched them into space. During the brief ten-minute flight, the scientists watched to see if any astro-swimmers turned green around the gills as they swam in tiny aquariums aboard the rocket. The space race was part of a project about motion sickness, since fish and humans have similar biology in the projectile hurling department. Those chosen to give one small swish for finkind were cichlids, described as ‘sporty’ and ‘muscular.’ The cichlids were picked over goldfish, who were tagged as ‘fat and messy.’ Even with fish, space is all about the jocks. Bet there were a few nerdy goldfish with headsets in the control room, though.

A spokesman said that the fish landed safely, although one would expect they’re used to splashdowns.