Just four blocks from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, a space capsule now sits beneath a canopy of stars.
It will never leave the ground, but the faces surrounding it tell the stories of people who helped America reach space, including some whose names never became as familiar as John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, or Buzz Aldrin.
There is Ed Dwight, selected in the 1960s for an Air Force program that trained potential astronauts but never chosen by NASA. Robert Lawrence Jr., who became the nation’s first Black astronaut when he was selected for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in 1967, died in a training accident months later.
There is mathematician Katherine Johnson, whose calculations helped put astronauts into orbit, and scientist George Carruthers, who developed an ultraviolet camera that traveled to the moon aboard Apollo 16.
And there is Charles Bolden Jr., the Marine aviator who flew four Space Shuttle missions before becoming the first African American to serve as NASA administrator.
Their images are among those incorporated into EarthRise, a new $125,000 public monument on the grounds of St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Nassau Bay that seeks to expand the familiar story of America’s space program by permanently recognizing Black pioneers, women, and others whose contributions were not always given equal visibility.
For Bolden, seeing his own likeness there is particularly personal. Long before he led NASA, he worshipped at St. Thomas, sang in its choir, served as a youth leader and senior warden, and raised his family in a congregation deeply intertwined with Houston’s space community.
“To be honored alongside these pioneers, in a community that has meant so much to my family and me, is deeply humbling,” Bolden said.
But his message at the monument’s recent dedication was directed toward the children who may stand in front of EarthRise years from now.
“I hope every young person who visits EarthRise will be inspired,” Bolden said. “You can do whatever you want to do. Don’t ever let other people define you, tell you who you are.”
His message was particularly pointed for those who still may not see themselves represented in traditional images of scientists, engineers, and astronauts.
“Particularly, for women and people of color, you can do whatever you want to do, but you’ve got to study,” Bolden said. “You’ve got to work hard.”
Expanding the picture of America’s space race
An arched stained-glass canopy inspired by the Pillars of Creation, a formation of gas and cosmic dust in the Eagle Nebula, rises above a circular bench. At its center is a sculpture modeled after capsules used during the Project Gemini era.
Eight panels surrounding the capsule highlight pioneers from different periods of America’s space program, beginning with people whose ambitions collided with the racial barriers of their time.
In 1961, Dwight became the first Black pilot selected for the Air Force’s Aerospace Research Pilot School, placing him on a path that could have led to NASA’s astronaut corps. Despite his qualifications, he was not selected by NASA. More than six decades later, at age 90, Dwight finally reached space aboard a commercial Blue Origin flight in 2024.
Lawrence came even closer. The Air Force selected him for its astronaut program in 1967, making him the country’s first Black astronaut, but he died that December in a jet crash at Edwards Air Force Base.
It would be another decade before NASA selected Black astronauts into its corps.
That breakthrough came with NASA’s 1978 Astronaut Group 8, another group recognized on EarthRise. Among its 35 members were the first African American astronauts selected by NASA and the agency’s first female astronaut candidates.
The class included Guion Bluford, who in 1983 became the first African American to travel into space, along with Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space that same year.
EarthRise carries that history forward through astronauts including Bolden, Bernard Harris, and Sunita Williams. Harris, a Temple native who earned his medical degree from Texas Tech University, became the first African American to walk in space in 1995.
The people behind the astronauts
EarthRise also deliberately moves beyond the people who traveled into space.
Johnson became one of NASA’s most celebrated mathematicians decades after doing the work that helped make the early space program possible. Her calculations were critical to missions including John Glenn’s 1962 orbital flight, and her story later reached millions through the book and film “Hidden Figures.”
Carruthers, a Black physicist and inventor, developed an ultraviolet camera and spectrograph used during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.
Their inclusion reflects one of EarthRise’s central messages: Sending a person into space requires thousands of people who will never become household names.
“I hope every young person who visits EarthRise will be inspired. You can do whatever you want to do. Don’t ever let other people define you, tell you who you are.”
Charles Bolden
“EarthRise reminds us that history is strongest when every story is told,” said the Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. “The discoveries, leadership, advocacy, and service of these pioneers helped transform America’s space program, and recognizing their legacy reflects our commitment to truth, justice, and the inherent dignity of every human being.”
A monument with deep roots in Nassau Bay
There may be few places where that history is more appropriate than the grounds of St. Thomas.
Nassau Bay grew alongside the space program after NASA established what was then called the Manned Spacecraft Center nearby in the early 1960s. St. Thomas was founded in 1964 as engineers, scientists, astronauts, and their families poured into the area.
Astronauts Jim Lovell and Charlie Duke and legendary NASA flight director Chris Kraft Jr. were among those connected to the congregation.
Bolden’s relationship went even further. He once carried St. Thomas’ communion paten aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on its final successful mission before the shuttle was lost in 1986.
For the Rev. Mike Stone, rector of St. Thomas, celebrating overlooked figures from the space program was a natural choice.
“It’s just been an incredible blessing to be able to say, ‘This is what reconciliation looks like,'” Stone said. “It looks like recognition. It looks like working together. It looks like saying, ‘There is common humanity.'”
Stone added that when people choose to work together, “the sky is not the limit. The universe is.”
Public art as reconciliation
EarthRise is part of a larger effort by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas to reckon with its own history.
The project was funded with more than $125,000 from the diocese’s John and Joseph Talbot Fund and is part of a $13 million racial justice and reconciliation initiative launched in 2020.
“The Talbot Fund is really focused on setting aside places and spaces where people can remember our history, and also be reconciled to how we can move forward together and do better work together,” Doyle said.
An international design competition drew 23 submissions before Genesis Art Collaborative was selected in 2023. Artists Liz Conces Spencer and Gene Hester created the stained-glass elements, while graphic artist Jose Dennis designed the capsule.
The monument bears a simple message: “We can do more together.”
America’s journey into space was never solely the story of the men whose photographs appeared on magazine covers or whose names were broadcast from Mission Control.
It was also the story of mathematicians calculating trajectories, scientists designing instruments, engineers solving problems, and Black astronaut candidates pushing against doors that had not yet opened for them.
EarthRise doesn’t create a separate Black history of the space program. It makes visible the Black history that was part of the American space story all along.
And now, just four blocks from Johnson Space Center, that history has a permanent place to be seen.
