With luck, within the next few weeks or months NASA will launch the Artemis II to send four astronauts around the moon. This is a good time to reflect on the many astronauts with Colorado ties.
Not only is Colorado home to a robust aerospace engineering industry, with businesses including Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems (formerly Ball), and United Launch Alliance, many astronauts either grew up or went to school here, so many that I can’t list them all here.
Colorado native on Apollo 13
The most famous Colorado astronaut is Jack Swigert, who flew on the ill-fated but ultimately triumphant Apollo 13 mission in 1970. You might have seen the statue of Swigert at the Denver airport or the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum.
If you’ve seen the magnificent 1995 film directed by Ron Howard or seen or read other documentary material about the mission, you know that Swigert, along with Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, suffered an explosion that caused their moon landing to be scrubbed and put their lives at risk. The astronauts and their support team on the ground heroically altered course and modified ship components to return safely to Earth.
Swigert was born in Denver in 1931. He graduated from East High in 1949 and earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1953. Swigert joined the Air Force, became a fighter pilot in Korea, then became a test pilot.
Swigert ran for U.S. Senate in 1978 but lost to Bill Armstrong in the primary. Swigert won a congressional seat in 1982 but, tragically, died of cancer before taking office.
Other notable Colorado astronauts
Swigert is far and away Colorado’s most widely known astronaut, and I don’t have nearly enough space to describe the careers of every astronaut with Colorado ties. Please don’t take my mention of someone as a slight of someone else I miss. (If you’re interested ChatGPT came up with its own partial list.)
My family was excited to meet Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins in 2023 at an event hosted by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Lindgren earned a biology degree from the Air Force Academy in 1995, then got his masters in cardiovascular physiology from CSU in 1996, finishing with his doctorate in medicine from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 2002. Lindgren has spent the better part of a year in space, mostly on the International Space Station.
Watkins, a geologist, grew up in Lafayette and graduated from Fairview in 2006, then went on to Stanford and the University of California. She went on to work on Mars science before heading to the ISS. Watkins was one of 18 astronauts chosen for the Artemis mission, so there’s a chance she’ll go to the moon and maybe even become the first woman to step foot there.
Parents of budding scientists, especially girls, might be interested in a new book by Boulder resident Valerie Neal, “On a Mission: The Smithsonian History of US Women Astronauts.” My family was fortunate to hear a January talk on the topic by Neal, who used to work for the Smithsonian. Watkins and several other astronauts with Colorado ties are featured in the book.
Vance Brand was born in Longmont in 1931, graduated from Longmont High School, and earned degrees in business and aeronautical engineering at CU, Boulder. A pilot for the Marines, Brand went on to participate in the Apollo-Soyuz mission and three space shuttle flights.
M. Scott Carpenter, born in Boulder in 1925, went to high school there and studied aeronautical engineering at CU, Boulder. A Navy aviator, Carpenter went on to join the Mercury Seven. In 1962, Carpenter flew to space in the Aurora 7 but had some trouble with malfunctions and return, splashing down off-course. Thankfully he was able to exit the craft into a life-raft and await help.
I’ll mention one more. Kent Rominger, born in Del Norte, Colorado, graduated high school there in 1978 before heading to CSU to study civil engineering. Then, after earning his masters in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and becoming a Naval aviator, Rominger went on to five shuttle missions.
If you’re a space enthusiast, have children interested in science, or just need a boost of heroics in these trying times, now’s a great time to research Colorado’s astronaut corps and the broader team of space pioneers. These are the people, with the help of countless scientists on the ground, blazing the trail into space. Their stories may inspire the next generation of Colorado students to work hard in science and math to help write the next chapters in the human exploration of the Final Frontier.
Ari Armstrong writes regularly for Complete Colorado and is the author of books about Ayn Rand, Harry Potter, and classical liberalism. He can be reached at ari at ariarmstrong dot com.
