Author: rlauvlhm-ca

Green (center) with her fellow space travelers.

By Julia Lantos, Space Camp and Aviation Challenge Alumna

At 15, I stood in a desert in West Texas and watched my mom launch into space.

In May 2025, she launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard as part of the NS-32 mission, becoming the first woman physician commercial astronaut. While watching her rise above the Kármán line was the beginning of my journey with Blue Origin, it was also the continuation of a journey that started in Huntsville.

I first attended Space Camp in 2019 and later completed Aviation Challenge in 2023. Both programs helped me see that space wasn’t just something to read about or dream of—it was something I could be part of… something attainable. My mom had been a camper too, back in the 1980s, later returning as a Crew Trainer in college. We were two generations shaped by one incredible place.

One of her NS-32 crewmates, Amy Medina Jorge, (left) is also a Space Camp for Educators alumna. Her participation was especially meaningful because the Educator Camp programs were made possible thanks to the Save Space Camp campaign during the pandemic. Their flight marked a historic milestone: the first time two Space Camp alumni launched together on the same mission. For everyone who has ever looked at the stars, wondering if they could reach them— the answer is becoming a lot closer to yes.

My brother and I helped support this cause by hosting alumni trivia nights and creating trivia questions, and even donating our allowance. We just wanted to help keep the dream alive for future campers and teachers.

On launch day, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, and the countdown felt surreal. One moment we were standing on the viewing platform… and the next, the rocket was almost out of sight. While I was filled with anticipation, I wasn’t anxious. I trusted my mom and Blue Origin.

Being there, I also became very well informed of Blue Origin’s purpose and goal. It is not something many people have heard of, and I want to share it with as many people as I can. After speaking with many members of the team and people who worked there, I left with a newfound understanding of Blue’s mission; which aims to reach a future where millions can work and live in space— for the benefit of Earth. That message stuck with me and inspired me to do my part and get more involved. After the launch, I told the Blue Origin team that I want to fly one day too. I realized how important it is to share that story and help others understand what commercial spaceflight is really about.

I met so many inspiring people that week—including Jaime Alamán, who became the first Panamanian citizen to fly to space. He’s also the first human to visit all 193 countries, the North Pole, the South Pole, and now, space. That showed me how exploration isn’t just about reaching new frontiers—it’s about connecting them. A common misconception is that space is only something accessible for wealthy people, or that it’s a waste of money that could be used for other causes. However, the reality couldn’t be more different. Witnessing my mother’s launch completely changed my view, as I was able to see firsthand the work of Blue Origin and its purpose. While Earth’s resources are finite, space holds those resources and every launch, civilian or not, brings us closer to reaching them by creating this accessibility to space.

To everyone who supports and donates to help keep Space Camp and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center going: thank you. You’re not just helping people dream bigger. You’re helping them believe those dreams are possible.

And one day, I plan to prove it.

Jared Isaacman, astronaut and leader of the Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn missions to space, is making a second significant donation to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for its Space Camp programs. In July during the annual Space Camp Alumni Reunion Weekend, Isaacman announced a gift of $15 million for the Inspiration4 Skills Training Complex, currently under construction, and seed money for a fourth dormitory for Space Camp students. 

Isaacman is the founder and Executive Chairman of Shift4 (NYSE: FOUR) and co-founder of Draken International, a defense and aerospace company. He attended the Rocket Center’s Aviation Challenge program when he was 12, an experience he credits with furthering his interest in becoming a pilot. In 2022, he made a $10 million donation to begin the Inspiration4 project, which is named for the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit. The Inspiration4 three-day mission flew in September 2021.  

The current donation will fund the training complex’s mission operations for Space Camp, and activities for Space Camp Robotics and U.S. Cyber Camp students. These activities, named for the five-day Polaris Dawn mission that took place in September 2024, Isaacman’s second space mission, include: 

• Simulated space missions to Mars and the Moon 
• A realistic space station mission including all onboard operations 
• A Mission Control Center
• An AI-powered mission support specialist
• A full-motion interactive Mars and lunar rover
• Futuristic spacewalks
• Science laboratories, robotics, 3-D printing systems, and holographic displays visualizing planetary environments, spacecraft systems, and mission data. 
• Critical thinking and problem-solving scenarios   

In addition to the mission operations area, the 50,000-square-foot training complex includes a two-story ropes course and an aviation wing where Aviation Challenge campers will train with state-of-the art night vision simulations, experience a virtual reality parachute landing, and explore flight dynamics through a spatial disorientation simulator. 

“The Inspiration4 Skills Training Complex and the Polaris Dawn mission activities will transform Space Camp,” Robin Soprano, Vice President of Space Camp, said. “Through this extraordinary investment, we are building cutting-edge experiences to take our programs and our students into the future.” 

The Inspiration4 complex is scheduled to open for the 2026 summer camp season. Further fundraising will be needed before construction on the dormitory begins. 

Educator alum Aymette (Amy) Medina Jorge and Space Camp alum Dr. Gretchen Green will join the 12th human flight for Blue Origin’s New Shepard program.

Amy Jorge attended the Space Camp Academy for Educators in 2024 and would be the first educator alumna to go to space. She is a high school and middle school STEM teacher at Odyssey Academy in Galveston, Texas. She has led more than 60 space experiments and Zero-Gravity projects, including flying biometric sensors developed by her students and performing in-flight 3D printing as part of a parabolic Zero-G flight. Born in Puerto Rico, Amy’s mission is to boost Hispanic representation in STEM fields and push for greater inclusion in science for underrepresented communities. She is the 2023 AIAA and Challenger Center Trailblazing STEM Educator Award recipient, which celebrates educators who go above and beyond to inspire the next generation of explorers and innovators in STEM. Amy’s seat is sponsored by Farmacias Similares, a Mexican company committed to social impact and accessible healthcare across Latin America. 

Dr. Green is a radiologist specializing in women’s imaging with over 20 years of clinical experience. An educator, explorer, and lifelong space enthusiast, she first attended Space Camp in 1986, later worked as a Crew Trainer, chaired the Space Camp Alumni Association, and now serves on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation Board. Nationally recognized as a medicolegal expert witness and entrepreneur, she founded The Expert Resource to help physicians build expert witness businesses and improve patient care. A certified life coach, she empowers others to pursue their highest purpose. At 16, she bicycled across the U.S. to fight hunger and, in 2022, reached the North Pole. Dr. Green trained at Harvard, Yale, and Brown, earning degrees in neuroscience, history of medicine, and medicine from Brown, and is a proud graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. 

Read more about the New Shepard program and the other mission participants.