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This week, a first-of-its kind public monument was unveiled just blocks from the Johnson Space Center paying tribute to pioneers in America's space program who were Black, women, or from other underrepresented groups.
EarthRise is a public art installation at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Nassau Bay, just four blocks from NASA’s Mission Control. It features an arched canopy of stained glass patterned after the Pillars of Creation, the striking formation of gas and cosmic dust in the Eagle Nebula.
Underneath is a bench encircling a statue modeled after a space capsule similar to those used during Project Gemini amid the space race of the 1960s. On the eight panels around the sides of the capsule are Black pioneers of the space industry, including early astronaut candidates Ed Dwight and Robert Lawrence, Jr.
Another panel honors Astronaut Group 8, which, in 1978, was the first astronaut candidate class to include both African Americans and women. There are panels singling out astronauts Bernard Harris, Sunita Williams, and Charles Bolden — who was a longtime member and onetime youth group leader at St. Thomas. After a career in the Marine Corps, Bolden flew on the Space Shuttle and later was the first African American to serve as NASA administrator.
Bolden was among those who gathered for the monument’s dedication Aug. 16.
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"To be honored alongside these pioneers, in a community that has meant so much to my family and me, is deeply humbling," Bolden said in a statement. “I hope every young person who visits EarthRise will be inspired by seeing that there are many paths into science, service, and exploration.”
Pioneers from behind the scenes in the space industry are honored too, like Katherine Johnson, a mathematician and engineer whose story was among those that inspired the movie Hidden Figures, and scientist George Carruthers, who invented an ultraviolet camera and spectrograph that was deployed on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission.
Faces of other Black pioneers are scattered around the stained-glass canopy and bench.
The Talbot Foundation of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas funded the entirety of the $125,000 project. In 2023, Genesis Art Collaborative was selected to design the piece with artists Liz Conces Spencer and Gene Hester designing and creating the stained glass elements and graphic artist Jose Dennis designing the capsule.
The monument is part of a $13 million initiative to address racial inequity the diocese launched in 2020 that includes supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities and historically Black churches, along with providing tuition for Black seminary students and erecting monuments commemorating aspects of history — both negative and celebratory — that draw attention to this ongoing saga in our nation.
Texas Bishop Andy Doyle, who attended the dedication, told Houston Matters the goal was not just to address racial inequity in Texas, but also in its own history. The church’s first bishop owned slaves.
“The Tablot 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,” he said.
Rev. Mike Stone, the rector at St. Thomas, said his parish chose to erect a monument commemorating something celebratory, and connecting that to NASA was an obvious choice — not just because of the church’s proximity to Johnson Space Center, but also for the many people involved in the space program who have worshipped there over the years.
Since its founding in 1964, many lauded names from NASA’s history have called the church home, including astronauts Jim Lovell, and Charlie Duke along with legendary flight director Chris Kraft, Jr. Bolden sang in the choir there and flew the church’s communion paten aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger’s last succesful mission.
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“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.'” And when we choose to come together as one humanity the sky is not the limit — the universe is.”
In the audio above, Houston Matters producer Michael Hagerty visits the unveiling and dedication of EarthRise to talk with those involved in bringing it to life.
The monument, which bears the motto, "We can do more together," is illuminated at night and open to public viewing.
PHOTOS: EARTHRISE MONUMENT DEDICATION
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