Earth to Sky is celebrating our 20th anniversary on Friday, October 18, 2024!
On October 18, 2004, the very first Earth to Sky course began. It was a five-day interpretation course that covered the breadth of NASA science and took place concurrently at the National Park Service's Mather Training Center in West Virginia and at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.
The Earth to Sky team and program has grown and changed significantly since then. Many of the same people are still here, treasured leaders in our community, and we have many wonderful new voices as well. For most of that time, we have focused on climate and eclipse resources. This year, we are launching our new space science program so that we are once again covering the full breadth of NASA science!
Read more about our 20 years of history here!
We asked some of our friends from over the years to share their memorable experiences, and asked them, "What does Earth to Sky mean to you?"
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Video greeting from Dr. Peter Griffith:
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What a pleasure to wish Earth to Sky a Happy, Happy 20th Anniversary! I am delighted that ETS is going strong and expanding in all kinds of innovative directions. From the beginning, with the first proposal we submitted all those years ago, I was convinced that Earth to Sky would be a win-win partnership for NASA and our Parks: NASA has the scientists working on cutting-edge climate missions; and the Parks community has interpreters and informal educators with the communication skills to make the science accessible to the public. And there is another winner: the visiting public—they are the ones who love their Parks and want to understand the climate changes they are seeing first hand. So, after 20 years, I’d say, I was totally right about ETS being a winning proposal, but I was off by a number: it is actually a triple win! I’m wishing the whole of the ETS community great success going forward. I’m writing this as Hurricanes Helene and Milton are only recently in the rearview mirror. It’s hard to miss the fact that accurate climate science is increasingly critical. You are doing such important work and it will only become more important in the coming years. Climate change may not always an easy story to tell, but I’m so proud that Earth to Sky has and is stepping up to the challenge!! Along with my other comments, this stands as a well deserved 20th Anniversary Congratulations to the ETS Community! Ruth Paglierani, ETS Co-Founder |
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Please enjoy this slideshow of photos from Earth to Sky's history!
