Take the Astronaut Challenge

About Leland Melvin

As a former NASA astronaut, Leland Melvin has twice flown on the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space station, where he helped to install the station’s Columbus Laboratory. He credits his NASA career to his childhood fascination with science, both formally in the classroom and informally as he tinkered with skateboards to make them faster and family vehicles to customize them for family vacations. After returning to earth, he served as NASA’s Associate Administrator for Education, and continues to teach students about STEM, spaceflight, and perseverance as a teacher for the Varsity Tutors StarCourse series.

About the class

There’s never been a better time to be an aspiring astronaut. With Artemis returning people to the moon, missions being planned to Mars, and several new space stations in development, the busiest era of space exploration is underway–and it needs explorers, inventors, tinkerers, and dreamers to make it happen. So join former astronaut Leland Melvin as he challenges the next generation of astronauts and inventors to tackle the challenges of their lifetime–and shows them the tools they can use to get the job done. In scientific-method fashion, he’ll break down the biggest problems that need to be solved–in space and on Earth–for the next generation, demonstrate scientific processes that can solve them, and guide students through some basic astronaut training to make sure they’re up to the challenge.