posted 08-01-2011 12:14 PM               

Space Needle Announces Program to Send an Adventurous Soul Into Space

Program celebrates the new age of private space travel on the Space Needle's 50th Anniversary

Seattle's iconic Space Needle announced today that is it will be sending someone from the general public into space in what it is calling Space Race 2012. This mission is in celebration of the Space Needle's 50th Anniversary and it highlights the Needle's heritage of its futuristic effort to herald innovation, technology and human achievement of the coming 50 years.

"The Space Needle was built when our country was in a global space race. With space travel moving to the private sector, a new race has begun that focuses on the best of what the Space Needle has become a symbol of the aspirations of today's world of technology and science. What better way than sending a person from our midst into space to mark our first 50 years and look into the exciting future that lies ahead," said Ron Sevart, president of the Space Needle LLC.

The Space Needle is partnering with Space Adventures, the only company that has provided human space missions to the global marketplace, on Space Race 2012. Space Adventures has arranged eight flights to the International Space Station for self-funded private individuals. Eric Anderson, Chairman of Space Adventures said, "Space Adventures is extremely excited to partner with the Space Needle on this campaign. It is our mission to open the space frontier to the private sector and there is no better way to energize the general public, especially our youth, about space then to offer a flight opportunity to the masses. Our country has a great history of manned spaceflight, but our future in space is boundless. I applaud the Needle for assembling such a great public initiative."

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin has thrown his support to begin this effort and was present at the announcement of the program. "This new space race is important to our country in much the same way as the one that I was a part of 50 years ago. In 1969 when I made the first lunar landing with Neil Armstrong and we walked on the moon, the achievement was incomprehensible but we'd done it. Today we're embarking on a journey that will carry hundreds of thousands of people like you and me into space and that's just as remarkable," he said.

Also present was Richard Garriott, the first second-generation American astronaut. His work as a global ambassador for space travel privatization is highly recognized, in addition to his being an explorer, adventurer and a pioneering game developer. "This is a very exciting project that will advance the efforts to privatize space travel in a way that touches and engages the general public very effectively," he said.

The program will focus on the next 18 months with sweepstakes, video entries and selection of the space traveler. The online activities are live and details can be found on the Space Needle's website and on Facebook.

The Space Needle is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2012. Built for the 1962 World's Fair, the Space Needle has become the Number One attraction in the Pacific Northwest, with over one million visitors each year. Along with Sky City, the world's first revolving restaurant, the Space Needle is now recognized as the global icon for the City of Seattle.

Space Adventures, the company that organized the flights for the world's first private space explorers, is headquartered in Vienna, Va. with an office in Moscow. It offers a variety of programs such as the availability today for spaceflight missions to the International Space Station and around the moon, Zero-Gravity flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecraft. The company's advisory board includes Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, Shuttle astronauts Sam Durrance, Tom Jones, Byron Lichtenberg, Norm Thagard, Kathy Thornton, Pierre Thuot, Charles Walker, and Skylab/Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott.

posted 12-04-2011 09:47 AM               

A computer will randomly trim the number of entrants to 1,000 by Dec. 9. Those finalists will be asked to submit a one-minute video about why they want to go into space.

The number of hopeful space travelers will be narrowed to 40 and their videos will be put online for a public vote on Feb. 15. The public will have a month to vote and the top 20 will face a fitness challenge and the winner will be announced in April.

posted 02-22-2012 09:27 AM               

Send a Fellow Citizen to Space! Public Vote Open for 20 Space Race Semi-Finalists

From 50,000 to 1,000 to 20, candidates for the Space Needle's Space Race 2012 are nearing the final competition.

The program, announced in August 2011, will send a person into space as part of the Space Needle's 50th anniversary celebration. One thousand entrants were randomly selected from the initial field of 50,000 applicants from around the country.

Those 1,000 were invited to submit videos highlighting why they are the best candidate for this sub-orbital space flight with Space Adventures. Twenty of those videos now have been chosen and today they are posted on the Space Needle's Facebook page for public voting.

After voting ends on Sunday, March 18, five finalists will be identified and invited to come to Seattle for a series of elimination challenges in late April/early May to determine the winner of the ultimate prize of space travel.

The 20 semi-finalists, who range in age from 23 to 59, are a diverse group from coast to coast. With over half of the group from outside Washington state, the stories vary from every interest and background. There is the finalist from a remote Alaskan Village, a synchronized swimmer and a man being trained for the challenge by his young son. They all have stories that tell of their passion for space travel.

The winner will take his or her space ride with Space Adventures, Ltd. at an as yet undetermined date in the near future.

posted 05-10-2012 01:16 PM               

The five semifinalists were Gregory Schneider, 27, of Tucson, AZ; John Herman, 34, of Newmarket, NH; Lauren Furgason, 26, of Seattle, WA; Savan Becker, 41, of Odenton, MD; and Sara Cook, 24, of Washington, DC.

The five came to Seattle on Monday to compete for the spaceflight. Challenges included putting together a simulated solar panel at the Museum of Flight and doing mental and physical tasks while floating in an indoor-skydiving arena. Ultimately it came down to Cook and Schneider, reports MSNBC's Alan Boyle.

...they were brought to the Space Needle for the high-wire finals. The first task was to shinny up a ladder to the very top of the Space Needle's antenna and set off an air horn. Schneider's 29.69-second performance gave him say over whether he went first or second in the final competition.

Then the contestants were hooked up with safety equipment and put out on the Needle's "Halo," a narrow, open-air ring circling the monument's 520-foot-high observation deck. The challenge was to walk around the Halo, periodically writing down the answers to word and trivia puzzles that were posted at 10 points on the course. (Two examples: Unscramble the word PALOLO ... and tell how many stars are in the Big Dipper.)

Buzz Aldrin announced the winner: Gregory Schneider, a University of Arizona law student and father of two (with a third child on the way).

It'll be a while before Schneider gets to use his prize, which is valued at $110,000. The flight is being offered by Space Adventures, a Virginia-based travel company, on a craft that is currently being developed by Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace. That development effort hasn't yet progressed far enough to set a date for the start of commercial service.