NASA’s Mohawk Man Becomes Overnight Twitter Sensation

Bobak Ferdowsi, a flight director on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity mission, has become an unexpected internet hit, thanks to his haircut.

NASA rover Curiosity successfully landed on Mars on August 6, around 1.30am, after a perilous "seven minutes of terror." The livestream and television coverage of the event showed the rover's journey, as well as Mission Control overseeing the landing. But viewers attention were split when they notice Ferdowsi and his hair. Within an hour, he had a dedicated Tumblr – Fuck Yeah Bobak Ferdowski – which collated the many mohawk-themed drawings, tweets and blogposts that Ferdowski's newfound fanbase had created.

Ferdowsi had gained over 10,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours and Ferdowsi only became aware of the mayhem after the robot had landed. As one example of the meme had it: "Becomes an internet sensation. Too busy landing a robot on Mars to notice."

Buzzfeed reported Ferdowsi's Twitter account had less than 200 followers pre-epic hairdo. Since the landing of Curiosity, the account has accumulated over 16,000 followers. He even referenced his new-found fame with the following tweet:

Yay the power of Internet........