Ex-NASA engineer’s egg dropping experiment video goes viral on YouTube

Imagine this, you want to make yourself a proper egg omelette but just when you pick it up and wish to break it onto the pan, you drop it on the floor. We all know what happens next, don’t we? Yes, the egg cracks and the entire kitchen floor looks like an eggy massacre. Now, imagine what would happen if you dropped an egg from the outer space? The result is unthinkable. Recently, an egg dropped from the sky and managed to survive. No, it’s not a joke. In fact, that’s exactly what happened, thanks to ex-NASA engineer and popular YouTuber Mark Rober. What’s more interesting is that, the 26-minute video featuring the entire experiment from scratch and shared by Rober on his YouTube channel (has 22.9 million followers), has now become viral with a whooping 14 million views in just two days.  

Before you start thinking about miracles, magic and other impossible stuffs, let us tell you what exactly happened. Turns out, all Rober wanted was to give the very basic school science experiment a brand-new shape. So, this is what he did. He sent an egg into the outer space via a rocket and flew it up in a balloon. Once it reached the desired elevation, it plummeted back to Earth at a speed of 150 miles per hour. Rober’s motive was fairly simple – to land the egg on a soft surface to prevent it from cracking and that’s exactly how it happened. But this too seems kind of far-fetched, right? Well, here’s the trick. The ex-NASA and Apple engineer insulated (it was put inside a contraption) the egg properly, so that it didn’t freeze or blow up during its journey to and from space. So, we can say that the entire success of the incident lay in the protection of the egg. 

Interestingly, Rober’s initial plan was to drop the egg from the world’s tallest building aka Dubai’s landmark tower Burj Khalifa. But in the last minute, he decided to go higher.   

Now known as a new-age YouTuber specialising in science and DIY gadgets videos, this 42-year-old was an engineer with NASA for nine years and closely worked in developing the Curiosity rover at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Following that, he also worked at Apple Inc. for four years as a product designer and was involved in virtual reality and self-driving car projects. He retired early and has ever since been a freelancer, innovator, educator and of course a social media sensation.