You know what’s cool? Virgin Galactic launched three passengers and an instructor to the edge of space last week. You know what’s not cool? They brought along ancient human fossils from Homo Naledi, an ancient-human species that lived 250,000 years old. Why would anyone in their right mind want to launch the fossil remains of a distant human relative that lived a quarter of a million years ago? Oh, good PR you say? I guess that makes sense, since we’re talking about it.
The launch was part of a public relations marketing campaign by the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA) to draw attention to “science, exploration, human origins, and South Africa” according to Lee Berger who discovered the fossils near Johannesburg in South Africa.
So I guess you could call this another out of this world PR stunt.
Archaeologists are losing it over Virgin Galactic’s latest spaceflight