Art imitated life recently as recording artist and producer Pharrell Williams has just partnered with NASA.
No, he’s not zooming to the moon — yet. That’s in 2013 on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space travel enterprise.
Pharrell’s partnership with NASA has the StarTrak CEO hosting an education event on Saturday, April 23, that is poised to encourage students to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies and careers. The STEM event will take place at the Williams Farms Park in Virginia Beach, Va. The event is free and open to the public.
NASA’s Summer of Innovation is a key part of President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, which was launched to help keep middle school students engaged during school breaks.
Pharrell, a native of Hampton Roads, Va., will also deliver an address about his nonprofit, From One Hand to Another, and the new Pharrell Williams Resource Center. The resource center probably will open while Pharrell is in outer space on the Virgin Galactic.
Who else will be on board with NASA and Pharrell? Dallas Austin also bought a ticket, and he was so excited that he had to tweet all about it a few weeks ago:
“Yes!! Just got my confirmation to travel to space in 2013 thanx to Richard Branson !! I’m gonna see Earth!!”
Pharrell bought his six-figure ticket to outer space back in 2008.
In case you’re itching to go and have a few extra bucks lying around, this is a fine time to show you your spacecraft. The North Star, according to the brochure, has “a number of design features which we believed in their own right could make the vehicles many thousands of times safer than any manned space craft of the past.”
One prerequisite to taking the trip is training. You must be trained. NASA just doesn’t let anybody with a few extra bucks go into outer space. Also, you must undergo a few health screenings that are said to be “simple and unrestrictive.”
The cost of one ticket is about $200,000, and a deposit is required. –zondra hughes
