During my visit to Space Center Houston on April 2, I was thrilled to see the new Artemis program exhibit featuring Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman astronaut to complete a long-duration mission. The museum, which has hosted over 22 million visitors in its 30 years of operation, is filled with space history, including exhibits on the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. As a child of the space shuttle program, I was particularly excited to see the shuttle carrier aircraft that ferried spacecraft between servicing sites on Earth. The aircraft is now full of exhibits and explainers, but I couldn’t help but be distracted by its original hardware and olive-green interior. As a Canadian, I was also delighted to spot a replica Canadarm robotic arm inside the mock space shuttle atop the 747 carrier plane. Space Center Houston is rightly focused on space history, but it’s important to remember that all history is connected, and we must work to help underprivileged, underrepresented, and oppressed groups. The new Artemis push to the moon aims to include more types of people, with NASA pledging to land the first woman and person of color on the moon on its Artemis 3 mission in 2025 or thereabouts. I can’t wait to come back to Space Center Houston as it acquires more artifacts associated with Artemis and see what all the little kids filling the museum that Sunday will produce as they pursue their interests in space.
