Do you have to live in Texas to be a Space Cowboy? A lot of private space companies now have a large presence in Texas. Perhaps this idea goes back to the 1960's during the early days of the Space Race with the creation of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and John F. Kennedy's We Choose to Go to the Moon speech at Rice University in Houston Texas.
SpaceX tests their rocket engines in McGregor, Texas and launches Starship in Boca Chica, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley. Firefly Aerospace is based outside of Austin in Cedar Park, Texas and tests engines near Bertram, Texas. Blue Origin has been launching New Shepard at Launch Site One in West Texas. Check out this link for the recent NS-15 launch and don't miss this video of Ms. Caitlin Dietrich touring Blue Origin's Launch Site One, which will soon send astronauts up into space from Van Horn, Texas - initiating a new era of Space Cowboys.
I also love that Blue Origin is helping children understand that space is truly accessible to everyone. Blue Origin's Club for the Future aims to inspire youth to pursue careers in STEM and help visualize the future of life in space to benefit Earth. Your first mission (if you choose to accept it) asks kids to send a postcard to space.
My postcard was flown on NS-14 on January 14, 2021 and was returned to me in February. Working with the Loukoumi Foundation, I plan to collaborate with Club for the Future to have other children send postcards to space.
The catch is that 1) we will be sending positive or inspirational messages into space and 2) instead of having the postcards returned to the sender, they would be sent to a grandparent or a patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or a resident in a senior living facility through 3 Wishes for Ruby's Residents - really anyone that would appreciate a simple note after being isolated for the past year due to the pandemic. Please join me in sharing inspirational messages to someone who could really use them. In fact, if that someone is you, please send me a note and I will make sure that you receive a postcard.
“If you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.” – Congressman John Lewis
Updated March 2023
I have recently learned that my postcards were launched on NS-23, which encountered a launch failure on September 12, 2022. The good news is that no crew were aboard this spacecraft and that the escape system jettisoned the capsule to land safely without damage. Blue Origin expects to launch the recovered payloads in a re-flight soon. Keep checking your mail, as you may receive a postcard flown to space soon.
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