3…2…1… Blast off with Code Club for World Space Week!

Fuel your coders’ imagination and take part in World Space Week (4–10 October) — the largest annual space event in the world! 

Explore our space-themed projects, celebrate the women who have paved the way for space exploration, and learn how your club can send a message into space with the European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero.

Women in space 

From Margaret Hamilton’s code for NASA’s Apollo 11 mission in 1969, to Wally Funk joining Blue Origin Crew on board the New Shepard rocket in July, women have been an integral part of space exploration for centuries. 

Here are three real roles models you can talk about in your classroom who have made an impact on space exploration: 

1. Katherine Johnson, born in 1918, developed calculations that synched Apollo’s Lunar Lander with the moon orbiting Command and Service Module.
2. Mary Jackson, born in 1921, was the first black female engineer for NASA. She worked to impact the hiring of the next generation of women at NASA. 
3. Jessica Ulrika Meir, born in 1977, joined Christina Koch on 18 October 2019 for the first all-female spacewalk!

Let the exploration begin 

Our space-themed project collection includes eight projects to appeal to the space-loving coders in your club.

The collection features a brand-new beginner’s Scratch project called ‘Space talk’, where children learn how to add sprites and backdrops and are introduced to ‘look’ and ‘sound’ code blocks to make their sprite emote! 

For your more confident coders, explore our Python project called ‘Where is the Space Station?‘. Learners use a web service to find out the current location of the International Space Station (ISS) and plot its location on a map.

If you’re based in the UK, the USA, India, or Ireland, head to your dashboard, ‘Resources’ and scroll down to the ‘Learning resources’ section to download your copy of our space-themed collection. 

If you’re based outside of the UK, the USA, India, or Ireland, head to our Code Club international website.

Send a message to the International Space Station

Bring space exploration to your classroom by taking part in the European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero, an ESA Education project run by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. To enter, young people just need to write a simple Python program that will display a message on the International Space Station (ISS)! 

There’s something extra special about this year’s challenge! All Mission Zero participants will have the opportunity to vote for the names of the two new Astro Pi computers that are being sent to the International Space Station in December — how cool is that?

Find out if your club is eligible to take part in Mission Zero and how you can include a name choice in your submission with this handy project guide.

Our new project paths and European Astro Pi Challenge Mission Zero have easy to follow step-by-step instructions, allowing both young coders and educators to reach for the stars, learn together, and succeed!

Share your successes with us on Twitter using the hashtag #MyCodeClub