2020 Graduates Can Launch Their Photo Aboard Historic SpaceX Flight
For the Class of 2020, there are no stages to walk across, no tearful goodbye hugs, no clinking-glass toasts; the COVID-19 pandemic has forced this year’s graduates to get creative. And nothing says pomp and circumstance like visiting the cosmos: SpaceX is inviting global students to submit their photo “to fly on America’s first human spaceflight in nearly a decade.”
Anyone who earned (or is scheduled to earn) their diploma this year—from kindergarten to graduate school—can upload a selfie to SpaceX’s Earth mosaic, which will be printed and flown aboard the upcoming Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station.
Next year, three paying space tourists will take a truly out-of-this-world trip to the International Space Station, courtesy of SpaceX and Axiom Space. Joined by NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the history-making vacationers will spend at least eight days aboard the ISS before returning to Earth.
Add your picture online by Wednesday, May 20 for a chance to “fly” with Hurley and Behnken on the Crew Dragon “and commemorate your achievements,” the SpaceX website said. Everyone else can play around with the digital artwork: Zoom in and out or scroll side to side to see the many submitted faces.
Facebook recently hosted a digital commencement (featuring Oprah Winfrey, Awkwafina, Jennifer Garner, Lil Nas X, Simone Biles, and Miley Cyrus), and encouraged individual students to hold their own at-home events with friends and family using the company’s “virtual graduation hub.” Subsidiary Instagram also introduced creative tools like a celebratory sticker pack, AR effects, and the #Graduation2020 hashtag.
