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SpaceshipOne

From: Jean-Michel Margot <jmmargot~at~mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 09:21:24 -0400
To: Forum~at~Jules-Verne-Club.de, jvclub~at~yahoogroups.com, ptjv~at~poczta.onet.pl, jvf~at~Gilead.org.il, juliovernebr~at~yahoogrupos.com.br
Cc: pgyger~at~ailleurs.ch

L'EVENEMENT: La Maison d'Ailleurs, Jean-Michel Margot et Steve Fossett
envoient un autographe de Jules Verne dans l'espace a bord du premier
vaisseau spatial prive de l'histoire, qui vient de remporter le X-Prize.

The House of Elsewhere, Jean-Michel Margot and Steve Fossett send a Jules
Verne autograph on board the first private spaceship in history, which just
won the X-Prize.

En Français (English follows):

Grace a l'assistance de M. Steve Fossett, le fameux navigateur et aerostier
americain, la Maison d'Ailleurs, musee de la science-fiction, de l'utopie
et des voyages extraordinaires a Yverdon-les-Bains, a envoye le 4 octobre
2004 une note autographe de Jules Verne a bord de SpaceShipOne.

Ce mot, qui appartient a M. Jean-Michel Margot, a voyage a bord de
SpaceShipOne dans l'enveloppe réservee a Steve Fossett, l'un des
partenaires financiers de cet avion revolutionnaire. Il s'agit ici du vol
decisif de SpaceShipOne pour l'obtention du X-Prize, destine a recompenser
le premier vaisseau prive dans l'espace.

Apres un premier vol reussi le 29 septembre 2004, SpaceShipOne vient ainsi
de reiterer son voyage dans la stratosphere (à 100 km d'altitude) moins
deux semaines apres son premier exploit, et se verra ainsi remettre les 10
millions de dollars US du X-Prize.

L'envoi d'une note manuscrite de Jules Verne (en l'occurrence, un mot de
remerciement) dans ce vol est un acte hautement symbolique. En effet, non
seulement le romancier est sans aucun doute la figure ayant le plus inspire
l'aventure spatiale, mais il l'a egalement imaginee comme une entreprise
totalement privee. Ainsi, c'est le Gun Club, un organisme prive, qui
finance l'envoi du fameux projectile a destination de la lune (dans De la
Terre a la Lune, 1864) et qui obtient le soutien de nombre d'entreprises
independantes de tout gouvernement (dont la banque Lombard Odier de Geneve
mentionnee par Jules Verne).

De plus, Steve Fossett prepare actuellement un projet qui rend hommage a
Jules Verne: le tour du monde en 80 heures, en avion et en solitaire. En
permettant l'envoi dans l'espace de la note manuscrite de Jules Verne,
Steve Fossett prouve son admiration pour le celebre ecrivain nantais, ainsi
que son interet pour la collection de Jean-Michel Margot (qui officie
depuis deux ans comme president de la societe Jules Verne nord-americaine).
M. Fossett devrait ainsi se deplacer a la fin octobre a Yverdon-les-Bains
ou il rendra officiellement le billet autographe a M. Margot, a la Maison
d'Ailleurs.

English:

With the help of Mr. Steve Fossett, the well-known American sailor and
balloonist, the House of Elsewhere, Museum of Science Fiction, Utopia and
Extraordinary Voyages (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) has sent October
4th, 2004 a handwritten note by Jules Verne on board SpaceshipOne.

This note, which is owned by Jean-Michel Margot, president of the North
American Jules Verne Society, has traveled on board SpaceshipOne in the
envelope reserved for Mr. Steve Fossett, one of the financial founders of
this revolutionary aircraft. It was the second successful flight of
SpaceshipOne in the race to the X-Prize meant to reward the first private
spaceship in space.

After a successful first flight September 29th, 2004, SpaceshipOne repeated
her journey into the stratosphere (at 100 km -63 miles – altitude) less
than two weeks after her first achievement, and so will win the 10 million
US dollars of the X-Prize.

The shipment of a Jules Verne handwritten note (a short thank you note)
with this flight is highly symbolic. Verne is probably the writer who
mostly inspired the space adventure, but he made it a totally private
undertaking. It is the Gun Club, a private entity, who is financing the
sending of a projectile to the Moon (in From the Earth to the Moon), and
who raised funds from many private companies, non connected to any
government (like the Lombard-Odier Bank in Geneva).

Steve Fossett is planning a project to honor Jules Verne: the tour of the
world in 80 hours, solo in an aircraft. Allowing the shipment of the Jules
Verne note to space, Steve Fossett demonstrates his agmiration for the
writer of Nantes, as well as for the Margot collection. Mr. Fossett plans
to be in Yverdon at the end of October 2004 where he will officially return
the Verne autograph to Mr. Margot, at the House of Elsewhere.

Pour en savoir plus – To know more:

The Ansari X-Prize - <http://www.xprize.org/>http://www.xprize.org

SpaceShipOne - http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/

Steve Fossett -
<http://www.fossettchallenge.com/>http://www.fossettchallenge.com/
- http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/

Jean-Michel Margot and his Jules Verne collection -
<http://www.ajmm.net/jv/Collection/Coll.htm>http://www.ajmm.net/jv/Collection/Coll.htm

Images:

Premier vol de SpaceshipOne (First flight of SpaceshipOne):
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/pressphotos.htm
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/gallery/june21
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3826737.stm

La note de Jules qui etait a bord de SpaceshipOne (Jules Verne's note which
was on board SpaceshipOne):
http://www.ajmm.net/jv/Collection/Autogr/JV1.html

Contact:

Patrick Gyger + 41 76 365 64 38
pgyger~at~ailleurs.ch
Received on Wed 06 Oct 2004 - 15:22:01 IST

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