LabVIEW developer Brian Turner was on the Conan O'Brien TV show on May 2 to talk about NASA's 2008 Space Elevator Competition. Brian's team, the Kansas City Space Pirates, will be using LabVIEW and NI CompactRIO to compete for a $2M dollar grand prize.
Here is Brian's response on the appearance:
Space Pirate news 5-9-08
The Conan Show was a big hit. I managed not to choke and remained rather articulate through the 5 min interview. We did not however get to cover the competition, the team or the sponsors. They were on the list but I had no idea how fast time would fly. I felt that I was on for only 30 seconds. We clearly managed to inform thousands of viewers about the space elevator and raise awareness. I saw a big jump in web site visitors but only received 1 small donation. The show will be re-run at least once so even more may come of it. I will keep you posted.
You can go watch the video on the NBC site if you missed it. We mechanically steered an beam! It was just a laser pointer and only in 1 dimension. Still it is a small but significant step in our mission. We are planning to go to the ISDC (International Space Development Conference) in Washington DC at the end of this month. I plan on meeting with potential supporters there and hopefully securing the
funds needed for the rest of this year.
Here is a photo from NBC.com. Check out the Powered by LabVIEW hard hat!! LabVIEW really is everywhere.


While LabVIEW has many appearances on TV, especially on numerous Discovery Channel and Science Channel shows, I think this represents LabVIEW's first appearance on late night network show! Perhaps we (NI) need to start a program to recognize/reward customers that get LabVIEW featured/mentioned on network shows.
John