South Texas Astronomical Society hosts NASA Artemis Space Camp near SpaceX Starbase to inspire students

South Texas Astronomical Society (STARS) is a non-profit organization in Brownsville, Texas, that provides science space education to communities in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) through public events. Ever since SpaceX started to develop the Starship launch vehicle at Boca Chica Beach in 2019, STARS is providing educational outreach to inspire students to be curious about space exploration. 

NASA selected SpaceX to develop a lunar-optimized Starship to return astronauts to the Moon as part of the Artemis program. They aim to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2026. The company is preparing to conduct the first orbital Starship flight this year from Starbase that will provide engineers insight to speed up the spacecraft’s development.

First @NASAArtemis camp event hosted by @STARSocietyRGV at @RocketRanchTX went great 🚀 #GenerationArtemis #WeAreGoing pic.twitter.com/KTNEZfoWU6

— Victor DLS (@victor_dls) June 11, 2022

STARS hosted its first-ever "Artemis Generation" summer space camp at Rocket Ranch, a tourist camp site located in Boca Chica Beach approximately 10-miles away from the SpaceX Starbase facility. The Artemis Generation camp is dedicated to educate children about SpaceX Starship development and NASA's Artemis program. "The Artemis mission will solidify the long-term presence of NASA in South Texas. As the  NASA Community Anchor Awardee, STARS will host a series of family-friendly camp events in summer 2022 to educate the community in Artemis through STEM engagement," says STARS website, "Additionally, local high school students will gain authentic experience through the NASA STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES) summer intern program." The space camp activities took place on June 11 and June 25. The students had the opportunity to learn about rocket science through building rocket models and launching them, shown in video below. The next children's camp will take place at Rocket Ranch on July 9 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. CT. Visit: starsocietyrgv.org for more information. 

Saturday @STARSocietyRGV held the first @NASAArtemis Space Camp at @RocketRanchTX. Seeing the excitement of kids building rubber band rockets and astronaut egg landers is what it's all about! pic.twitter.com/WmoZ6XKsxu

— Cosmic Perspective (@considercosmos) June 12, 2022

Launching rockets at @RocketRanchTX 🚀 pic.twitter.com/ZwErALJIUl

— South Texas Astronomical Society (@STARSocietyRGV) June 11, 2022

“Whether we are using rockets to spark interest in STEM or sharing local resources with the community – such as the observatory operated by UTRGV [University of Texas Rio Grande Valley] research scientists, STARS actively works to ensure that the community has access to resources that help increase appreciation and awareness for the universe we’re all a part of,” said STARS Executive Director Victor De Los Santos.

All Featured Images Source: STARS Executive Director Victor De Los Santos