The FA Cup is famed for its out-of-this-world thrills, but now the famous competition has reached a new stratosphere with the last remaining tickets for Arsenal v Aston Villa being sent to the final frontier – space.
The FA has been celebrating the adventure of the Cup throughout this season’s competition, and ahead of The Final the last remaining pair of tickets head towards the stars.
Leaving Wembley at 6am on Wednesday 27 May, the tickets will go on a one-hour journey before leaving the earth’s atmosphere.
Assuming an Arsenal or Villa supporting extra-terrestrial does not discover them first, the tickets will then descend back to earth giving one lucky fan the chance to claim their place at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 30 May.
These are not just any tickets though, the winner pair will get to be pitch-side pre-match and have their photo taken with the famous trophy.
The FA will be tweeting, via @FA, GPS signals from the balloon transporting the tickets to and from earth in order to provide people with clues as to the landing location.
The tickets are expected to land at approximately 9am within a 100-mile radius of Wembley.
The FA has been working with flight experts SentIntoSpace.com on the unique mission. Following approval from the Civil Aviation Authority, the tickets will be launched from the centre circle at Wembley on board a specially tailored large meteorological balloon.
It will endure extremely harsh conditions on its journey to space and back, such as 100mph winds in the jet stream and temperature plunging below -50C, before a parachute brings the tickets gently back to earth.
Follow live updates on the tickets' progress on our @FA Twitter feed.
