![]() ![]() Who is the next Homer Hickam? Perhaps it’s a Scout working on the Model Design and Building merit badge. Eventually, their little science experiments gained national attention. He and a group of friends built model rockets that were increasingly more sophisticated. Thing is, Hickam’s love for space flight started with a love for rockets. The movie October Sky tells of former Boy Scout Homer Hickam’s rise to the level of NASA engineer. Plus, not all astronauts will go into space.Īnyone who watched Apollo 13 knows that NASA needs smart people on the ground to invent solutions to whatever problems their out-of-this-world colleagues may face. ![]() What better training exists for an aspiring astronaut? The Inventing merit badge asks Scouts to create an invention and build a working prototype. While some see that as a problem, Scouts see it as a challenge. 4. InventingĪ spacecraft capable of taking humans deep into our solar system doesn’t exist. That’s helpful even if - at least for the next couple of decades - the merit badge’s teachings don’t cover how to grow crops on other planets. Scouts who have earned the Gardening merit badge will, at least, know how to “grow six vegetables, three from seeds and three from seedlings, through harvest.” (Requirement 2a.) Or maybe he just wants to keep those veggies on the International Space Station from wilting away.Įither way, putting down roots in a gravity-challenged environment won’t be easy. Maybe your Scout will be chosen as one of the astronauts who starts a permanent colony on the moon. And with the 45th anniversary of the launch of the Apollo 13 mission ( led by Distinguished Eagle Scout Jim Lovell) happening tomorrow, this is the perfect time to reveal the Top 5 merit badges for the aspiring astronaut.Įarning one - or all five - of these merit badges won’t guarantee your Scout a trip to space, but it certainly won’t hurt his chances.Ĭheck out the Top 5 - and tell me which merit badges you’d include instead - after the jump. So chances are pretty good that tomorrow’s astronaut is today’s Scout or Venturer. ![]() (See more stats about astronauts who were Scouts at this link.) What’s more, an astronomically high half of space shuttle missions (67 of 135) included at least one Eagle Scout. Since 1959, at least two-thirds of the pilots and scientists selected as astronauts were Scouts. What makes me so sure that tomorrow’s astronauts will have a Scouting background? I let the past be my guide. Today’s Scouts and Venturers could be the first to walk on an asteroid, fly by Mars or even colonize another planet. Yesterday’s Eagle Scouts and other former Scouts orbited the Earth in rocket ships. ![]()
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