{"id":17208,"date":"2024-05-04T00:02:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/happy-space-day-contest-will-offer-kids-a-chance-to-visit-blue-origins-rocket-factory\/"},"modified":"2024-05-04T00:02:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:02:28","slug":"happy-space-day-contest-will-offer-kids-a-chance-to-visit-blue-origins-rocket-factory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/happy-space-day-contest-will-offer-kids-a-chance-to-visit-blue-origins-rocket-factory\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Space Day! Contest will offer kids a chance to visit Blue Origin\u2019s rocket factory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket is rolled out from the company\u2019s Florida factory for tests. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The first Friday in May is National Space Day, which makes today a fitting time to announce a contest that will give eight students an opportunity to tour Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket factory in Florida.<\/p>\n

The National SpaceKids Press Squad Competition is being organized by SpaceKids Global, a Florida-based nonprofit organization dedicated to getting elementary-school students interested in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, also known as STEAM.<\/p>\n

Entries are limited to students aged from 8 to 12, and must be submitted via SpaceKids Global\u2019s Press Squad webpage by June 14. Twenty-four students will be randomly selected as semifinalists. Those students will be asked to submit 60-second videos explaining why they want to see a rocket launch. Judges will then choose the eight winners \u2014 who will include a member of an active-duty military family, a member of a first-responder family, a member of a Boys & Girls Club, and five other students chosen to reflect geographical diversity.<\/p>\n

The winners (and an accompanying parent or guardian for each student) will be brought to Florida for a tour of Blue Origin\u2019s Rocket Park manufacturing facility, a visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and press training by a professional news reporter.<\/p>\n

The SpaceKids Press Squad will get a chance to interview employees at the Blue Origin factory. And if the timing is right, they\u2019ll be able to watch a live webcast of a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launch in Texas and interview spacefliers remotely. Check out the Press Squad webpage for details.<\/p>\n

SpaceKIds Global\u2019s founder, Sharon Hagle, took a suborbital space trip on New Shepard in March 2022. The Press Squad contest is being done in collaboration with the Club for the Future, Blue Origin\u2019s nonprofit educational foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission at SpaceKids is to reach children at a young age and get them excited about all of the careers available in the space industry,\u201d Hagle said today in a news release. \u201cWe are bringing the possibility of space to kids everywhere with opportunities like the SpaceKids Press Squad. My flight to space alongside my husband, Marc, was life-changing, and we can\u2019t wait for these eight lucky kids to experience an out-of-this-world adventure, too! We hope to inspire a new generation of space explorers and future leaders to pursue STEAM careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sharon Hagle (far right) floats with her New Shepard crewmates during a suborbital space trip in March 2022. (Blue Origin Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are other ways to celebrate space odysseys in the Seattle area this weekend:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The city of Kent, Wash. \u2014 where Blue Origin is headquartered \u2014 is partnering with the Kent Community Foundation and the Kent School District to present an outdoor movie night on Friday and a \u201cSpace for All\u201d STEM festival on Saturday. Friday\u2019s space-themed movie, \u201cA Million Miles Away,\u201d will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at Kent\u2019s Kherson Park. Saturday\u2019s festival starts at 11 a.m. at the Accesso Showare Center. Jose Hernandez, the NASA astronaut whose life story inspired \u201cA Million Miles Away,\u201d will do a keynote presentation at 2 p.m. Register online for free tickets to the festival.<\/li>\n
  • Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight is celebrating Star Wars Day on Saturday (May the Fourth). The day\u2019s offerings include lightsaber shows and training by the Saber Guild, music by the 8-Bit Brass Band, a presentation by Star Wars artist Kevin Graham, exhibits of Star Wars collectibles and appearances by roaming Star Wars cosplayers. Check out the museum\u2019s website for details.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket is rolled out from the company\u2019s Florida factory for tests. (Blue Origin Photo) The first Friday in May is National Space Day, which makes today a fitting time to announce a contest that will give eight students an opportunity to tour Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket factory in Florida. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,1873,4502,4450,4503],"class_list":["post-17208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-education","tag-kent","tag-museum-of-flight","tag-spacekids-global"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}