About DBA in Space

DBA in Space is a sci-fi comedy video quiz extravaganza that Redgate ran in 2011, aimed at people who work with databases. The prize was a chance to go where no database administrator has gone before: a shade above the Kármán Line, up into outer space.

The competition saw DBAs compete in two stages. First, they had to answer 14 fiendish online video questions and provide a tiebreaker of what they'd tweet from space. This whittled the field down to 15 finalists who campaigned to win public votes and impress a judging panel. More than 12,000 votes were cast in the public poll.

The Winner

Joe Miller, DBA for Research in Motion, beat 5,500 other entrants to win DBA in Space, gaining success in the final round by gathering the highest number of votes both from the public and from an eminent judging panel.

As the competition winner, Miller had a choice between a ticket to space or a $100,000 cash prize. He chose the cash, which he will invest to buy a ticket in a few years' time. Miller is already speaking with a Space Adventures' representative to plan his future reservations.

"I'm incredibly excited to have won such an amazing competition and I'm accepting the cash prize while maintaining my plan of traveling to space,” said Miller. “With money in the bank, I can make a decision when the time's right for me or even my son Theo to go to space. Thanks to the DBA in Space campaign, and my supporters, for making the dream possible."

"Many congratulations to Joe for winning DBA in Space's out of this world prize," said Neil Davidson, joint-CEO of Redgate. "We completely understand his plan of banking the cash and assessing the options out there – after all, one of a DBA's core skills is having a rock-solid backup strategy in place!"

View Miller's acceptance speech and hear him describe his space plans.