In episode three of our Space Oddities Podcast series, we learned that the dream of sending civilians into space was nothing new. In the early 1960s, just a few years before we had actually landed men on the moon, the U.S. based Pan American Airlines began “taking names” and was compiling a list of passengers to be among the first civilians to go to the moon. It was called the First Moon Flight Club. Of course, it was an advertising gimmick but it worked and over 90,000 people signed up.
Before the Pan Am First Flight Club took off, and a few years before that first lunar landing, another business mogul, Baron Hilton, was taking that same concept and expanding on it, but unlike Pan Am, he was serious. The Hilton Hotel chain wanted to build a hotel on the moon.
Listen to "Episode 7: Stay Hilton, Go Everywhere...Literally" here or wherever you download your favorite podcasts. And be sure to take a look at the fascinating show notes included with the episode including clips from the TV series "Mad Men" about the Lunar Hilton.
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