When I look back at the nexus of “The Pegasus Mission” Mark and I made a single decision that transformed the challenge into something grander than we initially imagined. Because we were working with real-time, open, and distributed systems coupled to IoT, we needed something compelling that placed an emphasis and reason to the participate in the technology. We did not want to trivialize the technology in any way, and that led to a focus on driving a unique user experience that people had never seen before. By focusing on the entertainment value and taking users to a place they could not travel, we could passively couple both research and technology. It is a unique exchange of equity between the mission team and the users. The users get an incredible experience they could not otherwise obtain, and we get to test the premise of the research and the technology while they do it. While we initially believed our thoughts were original, they were not. The concept was originated a long time ago by a great explorer, Jacques Cousteau.

Perhaps you may remember watching “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” on television when you were much younger. The Cousteau team would travel to remote locations and explore the oceans. This was in a time where underwater filming requiring highly customized equipment and scuba diving was not something many people could do. In fact, Cousteau invented scuba diving with his aqualung. You probably cannot remember the name of single researcher onboard their ship, the Calypso, or any of the research they were doing…but you remember the marvel of undersea world shown to you for the first time. We were absolutely enthralled watching the Cousteau team take risks below the surface in order to gain an understanding of what was down there. The act of watching the television special enabled us to be drawn into a marvelous exchange of equity, because that research, that we cannot remember, would never have been possible without us watching it. Ultimately, we all benefited from our own participation because the Cousteau team help make our lives better through the understanding and research that they did in the oceans around the world. It was an ironic twist that we can in some way thank ourselves for making the oceans a better place.   Our mission to near space is fundamentally no different and depends on users watching flight through our Web Site or phone apps.

With less than 2 weeks away from the launch of Pegasus II, where we take you not down into the oceans, rather into the heavens 20 miles into the upper atmosphere. We will test live video onboard the craft for the first time to bring you a completely unique experience from three times higher than where commercial aircraft can travel. You will see the curvature of the earth, the edge of the atmosphere, and the blackness of space in real-time. Additionally, we will stream telemetry from the craft, and map of the showing the position of the craft and our chase vehicle, all in real-time. Finally, we will let you send a 40 character message to the craft in flight and get your personal message into the flight video record.

While the endeavor is not without risk and success is not a guarantee. Unlike a television special, we will be executing the mission live and I can guarantee will it not be “perfect”.  Innovation is an inherently a risky proposition and it takes a courageous team to live it out and challenge assumptions about what is possible…and attempt to bring you an unforgettable experience. We can only try our best and I believe that the having the fortitude to attempt what has not been done before is noble effort in itself.

You can sign up for SMS flight notifications and we will text your phone when Pegasus II is launched https://www.pegasusmission.io

My thoughts on Innovation from nearly 2 year ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMVix6p33Zs