Reaching Escape Velocity: Pro Snowboarder to Rocket Scientist | Andrew Crawford | TEDxBigSky

Could there be other life in our Solar System, possibly hiding in the ocean of the frozen moon Enceladus?! In order to find out and explore these strange worlds, spacecraft and humanity must achieve Escape Velocity: attain the necessary velocity to "break free" from Earth's Gravity. But Escape Velocity can also be a metaphor for human potential: breaking through the barriers and limits that people think they have, only to discover that they are not limits at all, but are instead challenges to be overcome! Andrew Crawford describes his unusual journey from Professional Snowboarding to Engineering to NASA to X, and how he achieved Escape Velocity.
Andrew Crawford’s story sounds like fiction the first time you hear it. The Montana native was a symphony violinist and spent a decade as a professional snowboarder. Crawford then began an academic journey at Flathead Valley Community College, earned a mechanical engineering degree with a minor in aerospace from Montana State University, and interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Crawford then was offered a job at X, Google’s “moonshot factory,” working as a program manager on Google’s self driving cars-that program has now become its own company called Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@ShredbotsOFFICIAL]

badass!

[@kentleng2490]

Heck ya Andrew!! I grew up watching your videos before I would go ride. Stoked to see you still pushing the limits!!

[@Leifdf]

Just watched Airblaster December yesterday!

[@ZeroTeran]

I'm an NCAS alum as well, and struggling through my first semester at a new university after transferring. I really needed this right now.

[@chexalis]

Legend! You should write a book.

[@luisnet006]

Great job Andy!

[@thomasjeffrey8862]

Awesome speech Andrew!

[@Jeeiff]

So proud of this kid.

[@shawntaylor3135]

Yeah Crawford!!

[@TechNed]

Well done.

[@matthealien]

Really Good!!!

[@boshooda1941]

Awesome ted talk. Edit: 58 seconds, hate to be that guy, but gravity is inverse square, meaning its GMm/ r^2

[@Gretev1]

Awesome rider! Used to kill it in the TB series!

[@vadermt5073]

ARE YOU WEARING SKINNY JEANS?