— Shaquille O’Neal is dreaming of the day he can promote you a hen sandwich in outer house. Till then, his restaurant chain will assist to ship your postcards there first.
Large Rooster, which was based by the retired four-time NBA (Nationwide Basketball Affiliation) champion in 2018, has teamed up with Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ industrial spaceflight firm, “to feed the imaginations of the following technology of explorers for the advantage of Earth and house hen.”
“This primary-of-its-kind partnership is a recreation changer,” stated O’Neal in a press release launched on Thursday (Feb. 9). “I am excited to take the hen sandwich recreation to a complete new stage.”
Beneath the brand new settlement, Blue Origin’s nonprofit, Membership for the Future, will work with Large Rooster’s management workforce and O’Neal as Membership Ambassadors to launch new group outreach applications at Large Rooster eating places, together with inviting patrons to attract their imaginative and prescient of the long run on postcards that Blue Origin will then launch on its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft. As soon as again on Earth, the playing cards might be stamped “flown to house” and returned to their creators.
“Residing and dealing in house for the advantage of Earth ought to be scrumptious. Shaq’s Large Rooster and Membership for the Future will gas college students’ appetites and minds as they pursue careers in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] — all whereas delivering a few of Earth’s tastiest meals to house,” stated Michael Edmonds, Blue Origin’s senior vice chairman for technique, advertising and gross sales and president of Membership for the Future.
The Large Rooster partnership is the primary industrial enlargement of the Membership’s “Postcards to Area” initiative, which since 2019 has collected and flown lots of of 1000’s of hand-drawn playing cards from college students and house fanatics. This system’s different companions embrace Challenger Middle, Area Camp, NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle Customer Advanced and Area Middle Houston.
Along with flying cargo and passengers on its New Shepard spacecraft, Blue Origin can be creating an orbital rocket (New Glenn), a lunar lander (Blue Moon) and, along with companions Sierra Area and Boeing, a industrial house station (Orbital Reef). The corporate’s goal is to maneuver damaging industries into house to protect Earth for the advantage of everybody.
“We have all the time stated “Go BIG’ when requested about progress plans for Large Rooster. Now, with Blue Origin, we’re going as BIG as we will by advancing the dream of operating eating places in house,” stated Josh Halpern, CEO of Large Rooster. “Once I take into consideration what Shaquille stands for BIG enjoyable and pursuing BIG goals this relationship aligns completely with Blue Origin’s imaginative and prescient to allow hundreds of thousands of individuals to reside and work in house for the advantage of Earth.”
Large Rooster’s menu fuses O’Neal’s home-cooked childhood favorites with trending flavors to incorporate crispy hen sandwiches and tenders, Cheez-It crusted mac n’ cheese and hand-crafted ice cream shakes. The chain has places in Arizona, California, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Washington, along with venues on three Carnival cruise ships. The corporate plans to open 200 U.S. places within the coming years.
No begin date was given for the Large Rooster Membership for the Future postcards program. Blue Origin suffered a launch failure in September 2022 on its twenty third New Shepard mission, an uncrewed flight with solely science experiments and cargo aboard. The corporate is anticipated to renew flights later this yr.
