250 Years of Exploration

My husband was a teacher for 32 years in Joplin, Missouri and created a website over 15 years to document his classes, his adventures, and research.  He has many posts about things related to space exploration.  These posts have been recreated from his website, I strongly encourage you to take some time and browse his website.

4-3-2026

The student-designed patch commemorating this year's Space Camp Endeavour Scholarship team for the United States (with my wife serving as the teacher-leader for the team) proudly depicts a rocket on the launch pad, as well as that rockets patch around the earth, past the moon, and back.  That rocket is the Artemis II, just launched on Wednesday for a 10-day trek.  Four astronauts will go farther than any human has ever been in space.

I'm especially fond of the nod to the bisesquicentennial for this year - a celebration of 250 years of our nation's existence.  At one point, a revised version of the America 250 logo including the three wings that represent the original mission of Al Worden (spotted below), namesake of the Endeavour Scholarship was considered for the patch, but it didn't make the final cut.

​I think I even heard NASA use the tagline that was created for the patch - "250 years of Exploration" -  before the launch of Artemis.  Oh year, did I mention the rocket had a successful launch?  It's kind of a big deal - a return to moon exploration after some 50 years of leaving that science to the 1960s and 70s.  It's almost like it's the first time.  We pray for success all around for this mission, for the safety of the astronauts, and a stunning and safe return in a few days.

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