KFC’s chicken sandwich is out of this world…literally. The fast food chain is planning to launch a chicken sandwich into orbit later this month.
The fast food chain shared a photo of the “Zinger’s space vessel” recently on Instagram to promote the stunt, in addition to releasing an all-new commercial starring Rob Lowe. The snap was posted with the caption: “Here is your first official look at the Zinger’s space vessel. Yes, we are actually building this. #SpaceSandwich.”
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The mission is scheduled to begin on June 21. In the upcoming launch, the restaurant’s new spicy Zinger sandwich will be strapped into a fancy space balloon before being shot 80,000 feet into the stratosphere. According to the New York Times, the sandwich will remain in space for “at least” four days.
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The stunt was the brainchild of marketing agency Wieden & Kennedy. The company approached World View Enterprises in order to make the launch happen.
“As you can imagine, when we first heard about it, we laughed our heads off,” Jane Poynter, World View’s chief executive, said. “And when we picked ourselves off the floor, we actually thought it was really, really cool.”
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The demonstration flight on which the chicken sandwich will be hitching a ride will “test the full complement of technologies, including solar panels to generate power and the navigational technology that will tap into prevailing winds to steer to any part of the world and then hover over a particular spot,” NY Times reports.
After the test flight with the chicken sandwich, World View is looking to send a full-size vessel into space that will send human passengers. The company is taking reservations that are going for $75,000 per person.
World View is also looking at marketing beyond tourists.
“People kept calling. ‘Could you fly this payload?’” Taber MacCallum, World View’s chief technical officer said. “NASA gave us a contract to fly payloads. And then other folks called and said, ‘Could you fly a radar? Or could you do this?’ All these ideas started coming in, and we were just like, in the beginning, kind of flat-footed about this.”
