Wow! What a Space Inspired summer it has been with Go For Launch!
We’ve had a Go For Launch! nearly every week in a different state each week all summer up until now… and we’ve had a blast!
We started off on the Space Coast, which quite frankly, talk about the perfect way to launch into the summer! Surrounded by real rockets and spacecraft… I don’t think there is a more inspirational place on the planet for me! I was delighted to share all of that with the stellar students who attended that event that included Astronaut Wendy Lawrence. They even got a extra-special treat! The students who were part of this event were able to ride the Shuttle Launch Experience with not 1 but 2 Astronauts! Astronaut Bob Cabana gave the students a tour of Atlantis before everyone hopped on the Shuttle Launch Experience. Even the adults in the room were thrilled to get to do this with 2 people who have actually experienced a ride on the space shuttle. Wendy and Bob inspire me every day in so many ways and particularly in leadership so I am incredibly grateful they were both willing to support this event for our students.
I had such a great time sharing with the students all the great new stuff in the Gateway exhibit much of which is incredibly current with missions going on. The spacecraft and rockets in there are our present and future in the space industry and these students are absolutely our future STEMists & Explorers. I can’t wait to see what spacecraft they design, or even fly on, one day!
We were so fortunate to have a number of volunteers, speakers, and mentors from industry. And we had the out of this world support from one of the greatest teachers on the planet Ms. Melissa Sleeper as well as one of the OG Space Kids, Leia Spaniak, who is a 7-time veteran of Go For Launch! Grateful for all the support from all of these amazing humans!
And can I just say how amazing this balloon backdrop is that was there from another event in the room next door that they let us take advantage of? I am going to need to figure out how to get one of these at every event without it taking me 4 hours to put together! So fun! (And it makes for great pictures!)
From there it was off to Midland, TX! This was our 7th event there and we brought our 7th Astronaut – Jim Reilly. It’s been truly an honor and a privilege to be able to collaborate with the cosmic community there and become part of their STEM inspiration for students. This event kicked off our 3rd Series of events in Midland that we have decided to name the Apollo Series. Students loved hearing about not just Astronaut Reilly’s spaceflights, but also his geology work and how that had brought him to Midland in the past. So much STEM! I love it!
The third event of June was in Huntsville, AL with Astronaut Tony Antonelli, where we had the pleasure of holding this event at a new facility – Redstone Federal Credit Union which I have to tell you is absolutely awesome! It’s a wonderful event space and their food was fantastic! Very grateful for their willingness to support Go For Launch! Speaking of supporters… we were over the moon (and beyond Mars) with gratitude to our cosmic collaborators at Jacobs who have been instrumental in making our Alabama events possible for the last 3 years. They not only sponsor but they also have a number of great individuals who come out to support as volunteers. So grateful for all our sponsor and volunteer support! This is the only way events like this can happen – support!
June finished up in… Mars! Okay so it’s not the planet but you gotta like that there is a place called Mars! SO awesome! This was our first event there and we were so thrilled to bring Go For Launch! to such a cosmically cool place. I mean, this is the first place we have had an event that actually has a flying saucer 😉 This was the first time to Mars for Astronaut Wendy Lawrence too!
We had a blast at this event with the students and were thrilled to have some fun evening events too. We love that the community embraces the space theme and is so dedicated to providing opportunities in STEM to their students. BRAVO! In addition to the actual Go For Launch! we had a mini-golf evening with some Alien and Space fun too!
Then it was off to the Washington, DC area for our first ever evet in collaboration with Kuiper Government Solutions and we had the privilege of hosting this event at Amazon HQ2 which is super awesome! It had been a handful of years since we’d been able to have an event in the greater DC area so we were really excited to be back. We were thrilled to have Tara Ruttley support us for this event and lend her scientific background to the students who had so many questions! I feel so lucky that Tara has been supporting various Go For Launch! events since 2017 along with her daughter Anna. Honestly, I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my wonderful friends and I am so grateful to each and every one of them!
It was great to have Astronaut Mike Foreman join us for this event! I was also thrilled to meet so many new people who have a passion for STEM from Kuiper. I loved having so many great mentors for the students and I am so glad to have made some new friends too. The Higher Orbits family continues to expand!
We finished out our summer of Go For Launch! with our second event in Sault Ste Marie, MI. We first brought our program to this community in 2022 and they started of with a bang! The winning team from their event went on to win the overall Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association (MAMA) Series and had their experiment fly to space in March of this year. I was thrilled to see several of the stellar students visit, and to participate, in this year’s event.
This cosmic community comes together in a really special way to bring space to their students and I am so grateful to all who make this possible, especially Kevin St Onge and Chris Olson who work tirelessly to make it all happen!
We were thrilled to be back at Lake Superior State University (LSSU) and I was very amused to find out there is a unicorn connection there… stay tuned for more details about that!
Had a blast with my teammates Astronaut Tony Antonelli and Jeff Herold who both really enjoyed the community, the students, and the event. It’s so much fun to work with them both!
This summer was incredibly busy but it was also incredibly inspiring! I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity for us to be in so many communities to work with so many stellar students. I am thrilled we had some repeat launchers and I am over the moon to welcome new students to the Higher Orbits family!
But also…. How is it the beginning of August already?! Time flies!
We will have a couple months break from Go For Launch! events but not to worry, we will still be busy with a whole lot of other things! And stay tuned for what events are coming next!
