The red-tinged mohawk haircut of Bobak Ferdowsi, complete with yellow stars dyed above his ears, threatened to eclipse the landing of NASA’s Curiosity Rover on Mars this week.
Ferdowsi , who works inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, reportedly cuts his hair differently for each mission. Just minutes after the successful landing, Ferdowsi was trending on Twitter and tributes were being paid to him from all corners of the world. Prior to the launch, Ferdowski had about 200 followers on Twitter and less than 18 hours later, he had 17,200 and counting. Ferdowksi tweeted about his new found fame, as dozens of fans tweeted him about his stylish cut. He spent the evening tweeting back to his new followers, before finally relaxing, signing off with: “Internet, you win this round. I’ll be back later, but thanks so much. Now going to celebrate with all my friends and team.”
Tumblr, a website dedicated to internet memes, already has a ‘Bobak’ page, as users submit graphics and jokes based around NASA’s brightest star.
The NASA team spent the last few years working to a tight deadline during a round of budget cuts in a bid to get the Curiosity on to Mars, culminating in what has been dubbed the ‘seven minutes of terror’ as the Curiosity Rover headed through the atmosphere to the surface. Once it landed, the NASA team could afford to relax a little. However, the celebrations were short lived, for the Rover is starting to beam high-definition footage back to Earth, while scanning under the surface of the Red Planet in a bid to find evidence of microscopic life.
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