Correction: Etsy artists will not go into space, but their artwork will

OK, this makes more sense.

CNET News.com reported earlier on a collaboration between crafts site Etsy and the NASA Ames Research Center on a new contest that encourages members of the Etsy community to design NASA-inspired handmade goods. The announcement was made at the PSFK Conference in New York during a panel discussion featuring NASA's Andrew Hoppin and Etsy founder Robert Kalin.

In an unintended verbal gaffe, Kalin said, "We'll send the two winners into space." The audience, along with this reporter, assumed he meant that the Etsy crafters who won the contest would get to be astronauts--in this world of Microsoft space tourists and Virgin Galactic, it didn't seem all that ridiculous.

Unfortunately for any wannabe astronauts, it'll be the winning artwork, not the artists, who get to go to space. Hoppin said later that he clarified the matter shortly thereafter, but that a malfunctioning microphone (there had been some sound issues earlier in the morning) may have that it wasn't widely heard.

So if you're an avid Etsy artist, you probably still won't fulfill your dreams of going into orbit--but your crocheted pillows might.