Symantec to send comp winner into space

Are there viruses in space?
Are there viruses in space?

We at TechRadar don't often publish details about competitions because, well, they're not very tech-related, but the latest one from the makers of Norton Anti-Virus is a humdinger.

As the press release says, less than 500 people have ever been into space, but one lucky virus-fighter will get the chance to join that exclusive club in the sky (no, not that one... apparently you need harnesses for that in space).

Three competition winners will be first invited for a zero-gravity flight on the 'Vomit Comet', where they can experience weightlessness and all the fun that brings, then one of these will ascend to the final frontier.

Fit

We're not sure how Symantec plans to choose the grand prize winner, who will spend around five minutes in space before being brought back down (we know it's a short amount of time, but it's space. Come on).

We assume they'll be assessing those winners to make sure they won't have a heart attack or something on the way up... you know, sensible things like that, and not a simple fight to the death kind of competition when weightless.

The competition is meant to represent the fastest software from Norton's new software, which can blah blah blah, we don't care about the reasons, we're going to register on the website four billion times (if we're allowed) to get a chance to see the great firewall of China from the sky.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.