Mattel Skip-Bo. Mattel purchased Fisher-Price, Inc. in 1993, Tyco Toys, Inc. (owners of the Matchbox and Dinky Toys brands) in 1997, and Pleasant Company (maker of the American Girl brand) in 1998. Mattel purchased The Learning Company in 1999 for $3.5 billion, but sold it in 2000 at a loss. The company had a $430.9 million net loss that year. Mattel earned the first grant for Disney Princess doll licenses in 2000. In December 2000, Mattel sued the band Aqua, saying their song "Barbie Girl" violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a
ITS launch vehicle operations for ITS launches envisioned the fully loaded second-stage reaching orbit with only minimal propellant remaining in the "interplanetary spaceship" vehicle's tanks. Then, while the spaceship remained in Earth orbit, three to five cargo second stages—called "ITS tankers"—would be launched from Earth carrying additional methane fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer to rendezvous with, and transfer propellant to, the outgoing spaceship. Once refueled, the spaceship was to perform a trans-Mars injection burn, departing Earth orbit for the interplanetary portion of the journey. The development work on the new two-stage launch vehicle design was privately funded by SpaceX. The entire project is