As the first privately-crewed mission bound to the International Space Station, SpaceX’s Ax-1 launch, currently scheduled for April 6th, has garnered a lot of media attention. It’s being heralded as SpaceX’s dress rehearsal for NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission, for which SpaceX has been hired to build the lunar lander. With that much at stake, it’ll definitely be an exciting and historical launch to watch.
Did You Know There’s an NFT “Stowaway”?
What hasn’t received as much coverage on this voyage is a cache of 30 NFT images that mission specialist, Eytan Stibbe, will be carrying with him on his tablet. The NFT images come from the House of Legends collection curated by Meta-Brothers. That eclectic collection, known as The Greatest Minds of All Time, features pop-art images of inspirational figures such as Oprah, Elon Musk, and the Dalai Lama. The NFTs were hand-drawn by Forbes 30-Under-30 artist, Amit Shimoni and the complete Greatest Minds collection sold out within 48-hours after it was initially offered.
So What’s Going to Happen?
During the course of the space mission, Eytan Stibbe, an Israeli former fighter pilot, now private astronaut, plans to call up the images and shower them in the light of the greater cosmos, having them “wish upon a star” as it were.
After the NFTs have successfully orbited the Earth, Stibble will “drop” them back to the blockchain. There, these 30 images will have the added distinction of being the ones that flew on SpaceX during this historic mission. The plan is to have them sold during a special auction by their current owners.
Why? To benefit mankind, to hear Meta-Brothers Co-Founder and CEO Tamara Yannay explain it.
A Heavenly Mission That’ll Have A Real World Impact
An NFT entrepreneur, Tamara Yannay has always been driven to capitalize on the hot NFT market for NFTs “to give hope to those in need and build a better future for the whole world.”
As a photojournalist for the Israeli military, Yannay toured the world and witnessed, first hand, the plight of water-deprived communities. She has since committed herself to raising funds with a goal of bringing clean, potable water to millions.
Towards that end, the auction of these Meta-Brothers space-travelling NFTs will go to benefit Drop4drop a non-profit organization that is funding sustainable clean water solutions to countries that need it most.
“It’s all about the power of art and technology to make things better in the world,” says Tamara Yannay. “We expect the SpaceX mission to increase the value of this NFT collection ten fold and we’re going to leverage that increased value for the good of this planet.”
Blockchain for Global Change
This is just one incredible example of how a few visionary leaders are using the blockchain, and its assets, to put the needs of people and the environment first. One distinct advantage that the blockchains offers its inherit transparency. Blockchain allows for greater accountability, so that donors are aware of how their donations are being spent and can see the real-world impact of the charity.
It’s an issue with increasing traction, given the criticism non-profits and NGOs have received for allowing politics and donors with off-mission motivations to cloud the impact of their missions. With blockchain, it’s a lot more difficult to “cook the books”, which gives donors the ability to better assess where to spend their charitable dollar.
An Out of This World Experience
For Yannay and her creative teams at Meta-Brothers and House of Legends a big part of the challenge is raising awareness about how NFTs can be used for the greater good.
“There’s a revolution going on when it comes to matching donors with charitable causes,” explains Yannay. “Part of our mission with the SpaceX NFTs is to educate both the public, and non-profit organizations, about the benefits of leveraging blockchain and cyrptocurrencies.”
One thing’s for sure, a little trip to space is going to mean a lot to people getting new wells and fresh water if the Wish Upon a Star NFT auction is a success.
