This year, as the world has gone through tough times, space has continued to thrive, launching itself into the exciting realm of space tourism with companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic. And we continued to launch into uncharted territories as well, making history by taking sports to space with the...
 

A global search to select and play the first new Sport in Space 
 

Narrowed down to 5 semi-finalists from across the world, each game is going through a 30-second eSport simulation. Stay tuned because in the new year we will be launching the challenge to the next level: flying the first-ever space game!

We also kicked off and completed the first year of SGF's Space Athletics Curriculum with a CTE (Career and Technical) course at a Grade A Charter School in Space Coast Florida. With the instruction of our highly accredited educator Nikki Hoier, we created the “Introduction to Visual and Communication Technology Terrestrially and in Micro/Zero Gravity” course: a hybrid two-semester program for seventh and eighth-grade students.

 

Over the course of the year, students learned to utilize up-and-coming 2D and 3D applications, such as Blender, Unreal, Photoshop, and Microsoft Office, and learned techniques used for modeling, sculpting, texturing, animating, camera tracking, rendering, and scripting.

Taking this knowledge, students worked together in teams / individually as a part of a challenge to create a 3D rolling ball game simulation in zero / microgravity environments. These students then presented the final versions of their games to be carefully considered by a panel of judges to select the winners.

Please join us in congratulating...
1st Place: Rain Matakonis (7th Grade)
2nd Place: Shaun Harden, Sebastian Pasek, Colin
Thomke, and Kahless Krieger (8th Grade)
3rd Place: Pablo Santiago and Edward Burian (7th Grade)

Following our passion for Edutainment (the combination of education with arts and entertainment) and desire to give hope during the pandemic, we started our first grassroots movement for #NOBEL4ISS. To launch the effort, we produced a PSA with astronauts Koichi Wakata, Nicole Stott, Frank De Winne, and Peggy Whitson, professional athletes Brock Vereen and Greg Roe, Film TV and Voice Over Talent Shari Belafonte, and the highly influential aerospace engineer William Gerstenmaier.  
 

Watch it here: https://youtu.be/uIZXmshFF3w

 

#NOBEL4ISS spreads the message that there is hope; we can just look up and see it everyday aboard the ISS. For over 20 years, the International Space Station has been "Off the Earth For the Earth." 

This year, we continued our #NOBEL4ISS grassroots effort with the #NOBEL4ISS Filmmaker Equal Space Challenge. Partnering with the not-for-profit Entertainment Professionals Mentoring Alliance (EIPMA.org), we invited the public to create 5-minute short films on why the International Space Station deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, receiving a total of 129 submissions from 33 countries. Alongside the challenge, we produced a series of virtual filmmaker webinars with experts to help our participants with their projects. Watch the full announcement with NASA Astronaut and challenge judge Nicole Stott here: https://vimeo.com/channels/nobel4iss/videos

Amidst this unprecedented time, we are incredibly thankful for all of our SGF friends for staying aboard our 'spaceship.' We wish you all a safe and happy holiday season, and may the joy of the season stay with you throughout the year! Thank you all for your continued support, we are so excited to launch into the new, space-tastic year with you by our side!

See you out there,