February 23, 2012
Two entrepreneurs from Seattle, Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow, have a plan to take bacon to the moon. These owners of J&D Foods have produced many bacon products like Bacon Salt and Baconnaise as well as bacon lip balm. And now they want to send bacon into space and then sell it online for charity.
The Mission
Esch and Lefkow have created the Bacon Aero-Space Administration (BASA), which has a budget of only $500. The duo found inspiration in a father-son pair who built a spacecraft out of weather balloons, a plastic container, a camera, and an iPhone with GPS tracking capabilities. Esch and Lefkow decided to run with this idea and find a way to include packages of bacon into the spacecraft.
The Progress
Esch and Lefkow plan to launch their “space bacon” mission in early 2012. But they have run into a few problems with their spacecraft, which they named SpaCon 1. The first problem is deciding where to launch the spacecraft. Since they live in Seattle, Esch and Lefkow are concerned about the craft landing in the water, making recovery difficult or even impossible. The pair also have to get permission for their launch from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The Goal
After their bacon returns from space, Esch and Lefkow plan to auction it online for a charity called Ashley’s Team. The charity is named after Lefkow’s daughter, who has leukemia. Esch and Lefkow don’t know how their mission will turn out, but they hope that there will be a market for their “space bacon.” And they’re certainly having fun with it, wearing their bright orange jumpsuits and growing mustaches just for the mission.
Article Written by Janice Grover