She's Got A Ticket To Ride ... Into Space

A story out of France Wednesday might have been ripped from the pages of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Only this time the prize is space travel.Just like young Charlie Bucket, who found the golden ticket in a chocolate bar that eventually won him ownership of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, Mathilde Epron, 32, found her own golden ticket in a candy wrapper this week.

Epron, a flight attendant, coincidentally, bought a Kit Kat bar containing a ticket into space. Her prize is a seat on a "fighter-sized aircraft built by Rocketplane, a company that builds aircraft intended to provide cheap flights into space," reports Reuters.

No word whether Epron is married or spoken for. If she intends to tie the knot, she's in luck. Rocketplane announced this month that specialty charter flights, including space wedding ceremonies, are now available.

Make your reservation here. I don't see pricing on Rocketplane's site, but a press release values a trip into sub-orbit -- and back -- at $200,000.

The craft will attain an altitude of 330,000 feet. Passengers, who receive four days of training at the company's Oklahoma City Spaceport, can expect three or four minutes of weightlessness and "the roller coaster ride of all time."

Last year Microsoft and AMD awarded a seat on the craft to William Temple, the winner of an interactive "alternate reality game" called Vanishing Point as a promotion for Vista.

In 2006, Rocketplane Limited announced it would donate "the ride of a lifetime" to the Space Frontier Foundation in support of the Teacher in Space Program.

Godspeed to all.