Off-Nominal - 215 - Gainesville-on-Ocala (with Craig Baerwaldt and Sarah Freese)

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Jake and Anthony are joined by Craig Baerwaldt and Sarah Freese to talk about Space Happy Hour and the upcoming Sally’s Night event, honoring Sally Ride and celebrating women in aerospace.TopicsOff-Nominal - YouTubeEpisode 215 - Gainesville-on-Ocala (with Craig Baerwaldt and Sarah Freese) - YouTubeSally's Night | Space Happy Hour Global Women's Night November 13, 2025Space Happy Hour | Space Industry Networking EventsSpace Happy Hour: Overview | LinkedInFollow Off-NominalSubscribe to the show! - Off-NominalSupport the show, join the DiscordOff-Nominal (@offnom) / TwitterOff-Nominal (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceFollow JakeWeMartians Podcast - Follow Humanity's Journey to MarsWeMartians Podcast (@We_Martians) | TwitterJake Robins (@JakeOnOrbit) | TwitterJake Robins (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceFollow AnthonyMain Engine Cut OffMain Engine Cut Off (@WeHaveMECO) | TwitterMain Engine Cut Off (@[e-mail]) - Spacey SpaceAnthony Colangelo (@acolangelo) | TwitterAnthony Colangelo (@[e-mail]) - jawns.club 🐘Off-Nominal MerchandiseOff-Nominal Logo TeeWeMartians Shop | MECO Shop

TLS and go for main engine, start. I'm still slowing the button pushes Jake, but we're here. We made it. You're relearning everything. You're like rehabilitating yourself on this platform. I don't know what's going on. I have to use my mouse for the cover thing because my stream deck doesn't work. I don't know what's going on with it.

But we're here. We made it. We're live. We got the four box today. What's going on? We're doing well. Well, we've got it. I was going to be here.

My host, a longtime listener, first time caller. Also, first time caller, first time ever on a podcast. So this is checking it off my bucket list. Nice. This is a heck of a one to a heck of one to. I love it. I love it. I was watching your clips and I'm like, this is the perfect way to start my podcasting career.

Being on the start and end. Yeah, this is it for you. It's one and done, I think. No, thank you so much for having us. Seriously, we really appreciate it. It's going to be fun. Yeah. So, and actually, that's a white lie because you were on the Space and Six recording earlier today.

Okay, okay. This is live, though. So, canonically, this is your first one because we're live streaming this. All right, I'll take it. All right. I've caught live lying. That's not good. No, you're maintaining the chronological flow of Earth, and that's appropriate. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Jake, what's up with you? You got that rad NASA hat on again? I do. I got my counterfeit Mexican NASA hat is. doing me proud today. So we're rock and rolling. It's going to be a good day.

I can throw on this is the Astro Digital hat here if you want some space happier swag. So cool. All right. Yeah. Well, we've got Sarah, we've got Craig here. We're talking space happy hour. We're talking Sally's night. We've got a bunch of stuff to go over, it sounds like. Did either of you bring a drink to you share? What are you going to rock in today? What's going on? Craig, you want to go first? I know you're excited. I know you're excited, so go. Actually, this bottle was imported all the way from Seattle.

I've been sitting on my desk for years. This was the special space dust moon landing edition that came out last year. I have a nice cold one. Actually, keep that on me for just a second because I do have a little prop. I came appropriately. So, you know, at Space Happy Hour, it's okay of your valve link leak? I got to say that again. A little plusered first time here.

At Space Happy Hour, it's okay if your valves leak. This is so much better than the Jake pores we usually get. It's amazing. That's a great product. There we go. There we go. I'm looking at that glass of beer. I don't know if that's true that it's okay. The bells leak.

I don't know if that was successful, as you said. Well, let's see. I got creative. Oh, yeah, hold on. Yeah. So Elysians from Seattle. It was a local brewery before I got bought by InBeb 10 years ago. and it's one of my top three beers.

Four is yours, Sarah. Love it. I got creative. You don't have a valve? Well, now that you mentioned, no, I don't. No, I got a little, no, no prop comedy. Sorry, you're just going to have to go off of all my jokes for the next hour. You're going to have to laugh at something else.

So, all right, I got a little creative with mine because we are talking our women's night, our Sally's night with Space Happy Hour. And this, to me, looked like a space cowgirl on here. Do you see she's in the cloud? She's on the horse. So I wanted to bring her along. This is grim. Everything's okay.

IPA. Oh, yeah. I have no, there's nothing. I have no significant ties to that. No, I'm in for that. I go off the label. I go up the label. You're from the East Coast too, right, Sarah?

I am actually from California. But where are you at right now? That's what I'm saying, because we don't get space beers out here. That's the thing. The nerds out west do space beers. We don't do, we don't have any time for that. No. I literally feel like every beer.

on the West Coast is space themed. Every single one. Space, that's true. I play whatever, whatever. We don't mess around. I can find, I could find sun-themed, which I was thinking, okay, like in New Horizons with Space Happy Hour, a sun-themed, the solar system. It's like, no, space camera.

I like her. I like her. So there you go. Great proof, Jake, of what I go through all the time, okay? It's totally true, though. Like, when I lived in Vancouver, it was like, there was no short, I had never ever had trouble finding space-themed alcohol. It was just like, I would just go, it's the first thing I'd find.

It was always out. I'm rocking this guy here today. It looks like an old bay can. What the hell is that thing? It's scary. Electric guava. Smearnaw. Electric guava.

What the hell is going on? I'm terrible. It's really good. I've had it before. There's no way they sell that in America. It's got English on it, so I don't know. Maybe. They sell now. That means they sell it to you down there. They don't sell that shit in America.

That also, Smyranov-Guava-based thing sounds expensive in 2025 to import into America. That sounds like a lot of tariffs. Yes, it does. Well, it's amazing. And it has that red food coloring, red 40 in it. So, you know, it's high quality. Oh, my favorite. Yay. Again, it sounds expensive in America in 2025. I don't think we can purchase that product. Oh, man. What you got? I got a graffiti highway.

We talked about this last week. I just didn't drink it last week. Or I did drink one, but I didn't drink the rest of them. Griefiti highway. That's like if I bet Sarah and I could meet by driving the same amount of time to drive to Centralia PA right now. Probably. Where are you? Just outside Philly over in Jersey.

Cool. I mean, there's a closest spot we could meet, but Centralia might be interesting. Let's do it. Let's plan it out after this. Right. right at five o'clock we're going to get in our cars I don't have a car. I'll find any space beers between here and there. I'm going to go on a mission.

I'm going to go on a mission. I'm going to find a space themed bar. I'm going to find a space theme beer. I'm going to do that all of it in New York. And I'm going to make a list and share it with all your listeners. How about that? We'll have a meetup. That'll be great.

Love it. Yeah. Speaking of which, can somebody give us the rundown? Craig, so give us the previously on Space Happy Hour. and then Sarah give us the currently on Space Happy Hour. Totally. Okay. Well, tell me more about what you want to hear because, you know, we've been doing Space Happy Hour

for three and a half years. I know that because I was in that video back in the day. So I was there for the origin, I think, but I've never been to an event because I live in the spaceless zone of eastern PA and western New Jersey. And we don't do that here. So where can I go to find out about Space Happy Hour events? Yeah, so a quick two-minute rundown on Space Happy Hour. So started in April 2022, had her first launch event in the Seattle area and Kirkland, about

750 feet from where Amazon Kuiper builds all their production satellites now. Astronaut Chris Sombrosky, Inspiration 4 mission, came out and talked. It was absolutely phenomenal. A ton of executives from the Seattle space area came out and then, you know, kept on trucking. Like the first, the next event, there was 22 people. So I was kind of like, hmm, this is really going to take out. But slowly, but slowly, kind of built over time. A big huge shout out to Jody Sorensen at Space Flight, Inc.

She hosted us for our first events at the Space Company. A couple months later, Berets Slagmilch at Blue Origin hosted us. And then kind of things, kind of the ball started rolling there. Sarah will get into was actually part of the first Washington, D.C. event at Amazon HQ2. We went on, hosted a couple events, Galactic Britain at the British Embassy. Last year I got in touch with you when I was working with Eric Berger on the reentry book launch tour. Had an awesome event at Space Center, Houston, at Johnson there, and ran out the 747 space shuttle stack. And along the way, we've had a awesome, awesome regional coordinators like Sarah.

We got Hunter, Sarah, folks in Seattle, Denver, L.A., Houston, Space Coast, Washington, Washington, Washington, Washington, Washington, New York. and the only location that's really left on the list to launch in the U.S. is Huntsville. So kind of all the major space hubs, we kind of have three levels of events. We have monthly meetups at bars and breweries. We've got events that are hosted at space companies. We've been hosted by Astrolab, Amazon AWS just hosted us last week in Seattle. We had another event coming up in Washington, D.C. and Denver. And our mission is to connect space professionals around the globe.

So that's what we do. I want to drink a few years. That's a lot of events. It's a lot. We're busy. We're busy, especially this month. We are busy. But it's fun busyness.

It's like all really fun work. It's just bringing people together or something that they enjoy. Like there's not actually work, you know, it's fun. What does someone expect to do at one of these events? Like is it just just networking or like you got stuff going on besides our talks? I guess that's what you're talking about? Yeah, almost 100% pure network. So I've seen the good, bad, and ugly networking and kind of done my best to create a great environment.

You know, it's a great place for space companies, find vendors, for people who are seeking, you know, there's a ton of people who are coming into the space industry, you know, working in other aerospace, maybe automotive, something like that, and they may want to transition. And so it's a great place to connect there. It's for people that are furthering their careers. I can't tell you how many people I know that have been at space company A company B. So there's a lot of that, right? You know, not all space companies make it. So just like SpaceFi Inc. They got bought.

They had one of the best cultures around, and we connect with those folks all the time. I also think, too, I think the best part about Space Happy Hour for me is it kind of takes away the barriers of your actual, that your job or professional life or a very defined professional networking session kind of creates. removes all those dynamics and everybody just i mean there's hobbyists there's professionals there's astronauts the shop i mean you get a whole mix of people who are really just there to enjoy a beverage together and hang out it removes those barriers and it's just a casual way to meet people which i find in our industry makes it so much easier for folks to really connect with each other something that we do that i i love and i will do it every space happy hour forever and craig craig started this and i We continue it because it's great.

We stand in a circle. We genuinely do this and introduce every single person at the event. At first you're thinking, oh, this is going to take forever. And it's so lovely because you get to know everyone. You can say if you're hiring, if you're looking, if you're just here to meet people. And it's always my favorite part because then people go and find each other right after and have conversations that actually mean something to them. So that's a really fun thing that we do at all of our events.

So we will be doing that at the upcoming women's happy hour or two. So, yeah. It's fun. You never want to go to one of those events and then talk to somebody that you talked to there. And they were like, did you meet the so-and-so from the place that you really care about? And they're like, I had no idea that person was there at all. Like that was not apparent to me that that was a person that I really would want to talk to. Yeah.

Yeah. And we all go to event. I mean, all of us are in the industry, other industries are going to these events. Right. And sometimes you get something out of them. Sometimes you don't. So advice for any networking event planners out there if you're watching this. Have everyone stand in a circle and just say why they're there.

It cuts through everything. It makes so much easier. So Craig your genius for that. I'll do that. I can't tell you how many times you finish up the circle and you see a B-line of people like making it away. I'm like, I got to talk to the circle pit. You're at a newfoundlandish all of a sudden doing a circle pit right in the middle of bar. That's what I like.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes when we get more than 150 people, it's tough to do. But even if we do it 100, we have it down to a science. You know, you literally just say, this is my name. This is a company where I work at and I'm hiring looking. Sometimes we have investors room to say, hey, I'm looking for money or we have money to give. But anyways, it's really just I'm looking or we're hiring.

Yep. I want to see the 150 person Bosch pit. I want to be there for that. You can. You've got to, you know, we got to make sure we do a co-branded event at some point. Actually, I mean, I should drive north or south is what I'm learning. I should either just take an hour and go north. and maybe a couple hours south on a train and maybe do one of each is what I should do.

Fun. We'll hold you to it. That's now that you've said live on the air. You drive down to Philadelphia and they drive up and we'll do a midpoint of I-95 meetup. That's fine. That's fine. Hey, I'm already roped in pretty far to this whole thing. So wherever you want me to plan an event, wherever you want us to come, we'll come.

Hell yeah. Well, we talked about this. He got a plane and get you out to Seattle. I roll out the red carpet for you. And we go to take a tour. We're going to have to do some, like, NSA work on Jake's ITAR clearances. But, you know, I think that way pretty good. Nope.

He's just going to check his mailbox and port whatever the hell up there. Is that joint that you used to go to mailbox there, Jake? Oh, no. In Blaine, Blaine Washington. Yeah. Whatever, that little piece. No, wasn't it like the little piece that's actually your side? Yeah, that one.

You stay there and we'll all be hanging out in Seattle. He's got an embargo. He's not coming. He's not coming. Yeah, yeah. He'll be on one of the little wheelie iPad things. The real truth is I'm just, I'm coming out. I've been thinking about this the other day.

I was making a list of like things now that I'm in a good, happy phase with how old my youngest child is, that like me escaping for a couple of days to Seattle is back. on the books and I'm like all right that's got to be happening this year because I've been talking about it for so long and there's such a density of people out there that I need we almost jumped on a really cheap flight deal just to go to Seattle for a little bit and then I was thinking about everyone I would have to reach out to to tell that I'm in Seattle for like you know three days and like I know a thousand people here that I want to hang out with so now I just need to make that happen so I'll need to coordinate when this is occurring yeah it's turning into quite

the space city like it's it's pretty wild it really is yeah man I mean, I was there. I lived there for a brief, brief time. I was there for three months back in 2021. And I mean, obviously there was Boeing there. So that presence was there. But it was more, it felt more like a general tech hub. And now all of a sudden, it's becoming very space focus. I mean, they just had Seattle Space Week. That I want to go out to next year. That was cool. But a lot of the clients I work with, my day job outside of Space Happy Hour, I work for AWS. aerospace and satellite solutions. And I work with all of our kind of up and coming startup customers. And so many of them are out in Seattle. Whereas three years ago, I feel like that wasn't quite yet the case.

But it makes sense. But they've caught up. It's a huge hub out there. I think everybody forget that every single Starlink satellite today has been built in Redmond. Yes. All the satellites, Black Sky satellites. I mean, they're all right here.

So we are truly big satellite capital in the world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and that's like that all of a sudden became the space industry. There was like all this. I was just trying to figure out what to do with space. And then all of a sudden, the only thing we do is space is constellations now. It's like that's it.

Jake, the 90s telecoms are laughing in their in their checkbooks at the moment that you think now that became the space industry. Like did you look at the pie charts all these years of like where do people make money in space? It was like telecom. Yeah. Because it's not like those guys were like mass producing like. There's not three SSSSE 1300s coming off the line every day in Seattle in the 1990s. That's not how it worked. That is actually funny, though, because, like, you think about Caleb Henry's early years of covering space

when it was, like, tracking the eight geo-satellites that were contracted per year. And it's like, you knew the eight satellites per year. Like, that was the thing. And now it's, like, I don't know, probably eight drove by your window out there, Craig. Yeah, we probably dropped eight this one. You know, it's like, you know, it was that old line of, like, Sam M.M. beer, like, they spill more, you know, beer. It's probably what happens in the Seattle satellite industry.

You drop more solid than, you know, other countries launch. I do love that the Kuiper, no offense, Sarah. The Kuiper satellites are built in Kirkland. Is a funny, like, white-labeled satellite joke. Like, it's, like, a pretty good version of the other one, but it's just Kirkland branded, you know. Well, if you're a true Seattle guy, you would know that like literally the Kirkland Costco headquarters is like literally six minutes.

It's also there. It's right there. Yeah. We can't talk about Costco right now. I went there this morning and it was a blood bath on my credit card. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to pay for it. You're like, please don't bring that up. Yeah.

Well, they launched this thing. I don't know if they have it the same where you guys are. But in Mexico, they just launched for executive members. You can go in an hour earlier. I keep the riff-raff out. It's great. It's the best. Did you buy 400 of those Smyrnav Gwavas?

Is that what you were doing in there? No, no, no, no. But it was like, we hadn't been it in a couple months, and it's like, okay, so they got to catch up. Every staple was on the list. And it was like, $800 or some god-awful number. So anyway, I'm going to survive that. Which currency?

I don't know. 800 Canadian dollars, roughly. Yeah. It was 10,000 pesos. There you go. How's that? Monopoly money. It's so funny, dude.

I love a five-digit Costco building. Yeah, that's really rough. Anyway, that's my Costco side tracks. It triggered me with the Kirkland. He said we're not talking about that. We are still talking about it. Let's stop now so that you can be in a good mood. And this man doesn't even eat meat.

He doesn't even go to that part of the store in the back. What? What are you buying? buying at Costco for 10,000 basers off aside from smirnoff guava 10,000 pesos of smirnoff guava is just uh all it was a lot of a lot of dog food a lot of I don't know granola it's it was bad 15 kilogram bag of Parmesan cheese you know it is right okay whatever we'll get we'll never talk about it again I'm sorry we ever talked

about. So why don't we talk about Sally's night then? What is what is this this particular event? What's going on? Give us a rundown. Yeah. So I well I don't have any of my space gear on. I know you guys do. I have my pink shirt on. I'm representing Sally's night with the pink t-shirt for all of those who are watching out there. So yeah, this is super exciting. This is an idea that Craig has had for many years. It's something that I've wanted to implement since getting involved with space happy hour. and just it kind of the it just never really came to be um so it's sally's night is our first women's space happy hour and global women's space happy hour initiative that we're launching on thursday november 13th the date has no significance or ties to anything that is the date that we decided on

when craig and i started texting about it and turning this into a reality um so like i said a little background on my involvement in space happy hour before getting into Sally's night. Craig and I partnered for an event at the back in late 2022 at one of the Amazon HQ offices. It was a beautiful sunset night, fantastic event. And then from there, he has grown this into a global organization, and I am the New York City coordinator. After having run a few events in New York City, the disparity between the amount of women and the amount of men at our events was very, very apparent. And a lot of women were approaching me asking for a women's initiative or a women's night where we could get together and really build community.

And there's no better organization to do that through than Space Happy Hour, because like I said, it really removes those, I think, stressors or barriers that makes it difficult to network and really kind of build something for yourself. It makes those interactions really meaningful and casual. So what we decided to do is Craig and I were going back and forth about the women's idea was turn this into not only a global initiative, but celebrate women, you know, are female trailblazers in the past, the women who are currently in the industry making moves, and then, of course, pay it forward to future women leaders in space. So we are calling it Sally's Knight in honor of Sally Ride, who is an incredible, incredible, not only, you know, I would say American hero, but just person in general. and the legacy that she left in space and STEM education was fantastic.

I know we'll probably talk a little bit about that later. But it's Sally's Night in the U.S., broadly we're calling it, Women's Night, Sally's Night, but we also have other countries on board who are having events. And those countries will be obviously branded different, not Sally's Night, but instead,

after the woman who first flew to space from those respective countries. So if you scroll down, lovely you had that up. Great. So there you go. So in Canada, we've got Roberta's, night, UK, we've got Helen's Night. I love this feature. Keep going. I love visuals. France,

Germany, Japan, South Korea. And then if you scroll up just a little bit, we've just announced we will be having an event in Uganda as well. That just happened in the past, I think, 12 hours. So the Women's Night Initiative, which is again November 13, 2025, so we're just a little bit under a month out, is all volunteer run. Of course, in the major U.S. cities, in space hubs. We have regional coordinators who already plan space happy hours, but because we really want to bring this to the next level, we are totally reliant on volunteers. And in just the past week of announcing this, we've had over 30 people registered to volunteer and help lead efforts and bring women together in those cities, which is just amazing. So much overwhelming support

and excitement for this initiative. And it's really great to see that like something we were getting feedback on, like people really did want this. So let me talk a little bit more about the mechanics. We have some partners who are really excited about. I talked about paying it forward to our future space leaders. So we are partnering with the National STEM Foundation to raise money to send some young women students to the National STEM Festival in 2026. We projected to do about two or three. We're hoping to blow that number out of the water and continue fundraising for the rest of the year for that as well leading up to the festival next year. And then we're also partnering with an organization called SSPI Wise. SSPI is the space and satellite professionals international organization. And the Y stands for women in space engagement.

There are women's organization focused on representation and participation of women in the space industry. I've been going to their events and some of their closed sessions at different space conferences, and it's always created a really safe welcoming space. And they really represented what we were trying to do at Space Happy Hour well. So we brought them in as our kind of national global level partner, as well as the National STEM Foundation. And this is just going to be so exciting. Like on a personal note, space happy hour is something I really care about. The space industry is something I've like had the absolute privilege to learn so much about in my early career

and really get into the growth of this industry and what's going on. And the fact that I can even speak on the space economy three or four years ago, I never could have done that. So paving ways for, you know, women to see this as a career path for themselves is really important. and I'm speaking too for the younger generations. I had a very non-traditional path into this industry. I'm very grateful for it, but a lot of it happened by luck and not necessarily knowing how to break into this industry. So if we can bring women together and really encourage them to build a community,

we can be contributing to that. And I just think it's a really special mission and the feedback that we've received so far is very positive. And I'm so grateful to Space Happy Hour and to Craig because I think this is just the perfect way to really scale this. and make it a global thing. And I know you probably thought that the two people behind those helmets right there were dudes. But newsflash, they might just be two bright young women under there.

You'll see our new updated patch that's coming out. I don't know, Craig, you want to go into the patch or are we keeping it a secret for now? No. There it is. I got it. It's on the website. We already showed it. So, jokes on all of you.

Look who it was under there. the whole time. So, no, but we're really excited, I mean, too, and to honor all of the first female astronauts in their respective countries and, you know, bringing people together to celebrate that on its own is really a special thing. And I've had so much fun just doing a deep dive on Sally's life and who she was and what she stood for. And how, you know, our mission and her life mission are really coming together so nicely of helping to not only forward STEM education for women and other underrepresented groups,

but just being a good steward to space research and the whole story, I think. And yeah, I'm super, I'm super stoked. And the fact that this is already a global initiative, like what a special thing to be a part of. So I hope that other people who are listening or who have gotten involved already can feel that energy and excitement, because it's definitely coming from us and all of our volunteers. so far. So if you're interested in getting a in hosting an event in your city, please visit our website. All of the information you need to know to either volunteer or see where we already have existing events is there. So if you could, could you pull up our page one more time.

I gotcha. Yep. All right. Let's do it. And let's have you show the URL is well. That's just sally's night.com. I, that's the part I know about it. So before we started all this, we meant about all the URLs. Yeah, I was just scrolling through all We got Sally's Night, Roberta's Night, everybody's night. Everybody's One.com. UK in there, so that's how you know. I got to give a quick shout out to my friends, Olivia, Hamondin, and Catherine,

who helped me with the French translation because I'm not a native. It's pretty ambition Deutsch, so I could figure out Arabia's not. But, you know, I needed some help. Just make sure Google Translate wasn't making me look bad. We know it wasn't Jeremy Hansen, right, Jake? No, no.

That's awesome. I'm confused, but why it's not Roberta's night.com. But we can, we can. Well, because actually, you have to have a physical business there. So I know this because I try to buy those fans and doorkman. Exactly. I don't have a physical present player. So we're just going.com.

So just work with us here. The gatekeeping is all the mechanics. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's dot CA domains and the dairy industry that they're just got locked down up there. Yeah, I've been very happy to know I handle the back end part of this, which has been a whole time. task in and of itself. So Craig, you've done a fantastic job. As you can imagine, there's about 40 million different web pages. But that means we're gaining traction. So, you know, the more

URLs we're buying and generating, the bigger this initiative is going to get. So, yeah, that's kind of the instill behind this. Now, Craig and I have also been talking about Sally Ride's birthday is in May, correct? Correct? Craig, I want to share it. Tuesday, May 26. Thank you. That's my sister's birthday. So Salary's birthday is Tuesday, there we go. It's everybody's birthday. It's everybody's event. It's everybody's birthday.

No. So anyways, her birthday is May 26. So we do want to actually make this an annual event and initiative where we're raising money for young women to attend the National STEM Festival, where we're raising awareness and building communities for women and other underrepresented communities to come together in this industry. So like I said, November 13th, no significant. date other than the inaugural women's night.

Yeah. The significance is it's pretty soon. That's the significance. We wanted to do it. We're like, let's just do it now. You know, like, come on, let's get together and let's do it. And so that's what we decided to do. So, yeah, thanks for having us on too to talk about it.

This is how we... That's a good time for the regular one too in May because everyone will have just missed or forgotten to go to Yuri's night and then be like, oh, I should look that kind of thing up. So I remember next year. And then they'll see, oh, there you've got somebody's nights coming up soon. So you're going to have a good one two punch there. I did look it up for you though that there is a significant date on November 13th.

It's Sadie Hawkins Day. Wow. Is it? That's funny. I had no idea. That's the closest I can find that would be significant. All right. Well, there we go.

Maybe we can make some, we can spin off brand with that. Craig. Oh, you know what I do. This is all, you brought up Yuri's Night. I mean, what is it? imitation is the best sign of flattery, right? So, I mean, this is a complete riff on Jerry's Night. I will give it out there.

No, it's so good. It's such a good, you know, twist on it. I'm super into it. Exactly. Well, and then the other thing, and I thought important is, you know, space is important from national presence. Like Jake's like, oh, I want to talk about Roberta Bondar, right? Like, yeah.

So, like, you know, we want to enable that. The other thing, too, is we're all about building. a bigger table. Eventually, if somebody wants to take these URLs and run and do their own thing in their own country, I'm totally fine with that. I just wanted, like, getting the ball started. Like, I'm just getting the ball started, and then somebody wants to take it from there. We'll probably hold on to Sally's Night because, you know, we did plant the U.S. flag

here and, you know, keep on going first. But Jake and the whole team in Canada, Lindsay Chapman, who's run in the Corona Group, has done a ton of outreach to women in social. space Canada we've talked with some people in Calgary and I was chatting with somebody in Ottawa this morning so they're building momentum and yeah we're probably need the most help is those international locations so you know Japan Korea France give us a call find us at spacehappier.com click the website and it's get in touch and get an organization the way we set this up it's kind of you have a

group of 10 plus or more that want to get together we're ready to you to launch a web page for you. And the other thing, it's essentially a turnkey operation, right? Kind of like Gary's Night. So you say, hey, I'm the volunteer. You get the local venue and send us the information. We put it on the website. And everyone will get a mission patch,

and then the rest of the donations go to support sending students to National STEM Festival. That's right. That's awesome. And it's also probably time for this follow up, too, because the National STEM Festival will be in June of 2026. Part of the, I don't know, whatever the 250 year celebration is, I don't, what's the right term. But anyway, so yeah, anyways, so that'll be a lot of fun. And yeah,

like I said, hopefully this is just the kickoff of a big fundraising season. Because I know I'm also involved with a robotics group, Northwest Robotics Alliance here in Seattle. Everything in STEM is facing headwinds on fundraising. So it is an important knowledge, you know, I work my day job in engineering and, you know, programs like first robotics, national STEM photos, are really critical in making sure students get hands-on, you know, experience touching hardware and learning and going from there. So we're here to support all things, STEM, and bringing on the next generation. Semi-Quincennial is the word you're looking for, Craig.

It doesn't make any sense. I don't, I can't track why that's the name of it, but I was Same again. Same quintennial. Wow. I was confronted with this the other day because obviously Philadelphia has a pretty big part in these events going on next year. And I was like, what in the hell does that be? And then I looked it up. So quintennial being 500 years. Yeah, and it's the semi.

Yeah. It feels like that's like the word version of Roman numerals to me. Yeah. Putting this in a weird order. Why go all the way to 500 just so you can come back? That's what I'm saying. Tell me I'm wrong. That's the word version of Roman numerals.

Great logo, though, I will say. I don't know who did the 250 thing. Let me pull it up. It's a great one. I was going to say, other than like, you know, Sally's Knight, Roberta's Night, there's no way I could have found that without the internet search. So I'm glad you were able to pull it on. Check this logo out, though.

Look at that. That's nice. That's pretty good logo. That looks like a couple of rocket trajectories there. It might make the off nominees. It's a proton five there on the right half. It's given me proton there on the end. I think I was thinking, Roberta Bonder might be the first astronaut I ever learned of.

I'm trying to, it's got a weird, one of those weird memories that like sticks in the back of your brain. Like I was, I don't know, seven years old or something. And at school it came up, she came up on topic and it was like, who's Roberta Bonner? Okay, kids, we're going to learn about Roberta Bondar today. And I'm trying to think of the timeline. That might have been like because she was in space at that exact moment. That was like when it was. So that might have been why.

Once you were aware, that was a thing people did. And that was the first available version of it. So that might be the earliest memory I have being exposed to anything space is Roberta Bond. That's cool. Wow. That's really, I like that. That's a good backstory. Very cool.

Now I'm looking up the flight timeline. on so we can make you tell us exactly what class you were in. STS. 42 or something? January 22nd, 1992, 1992, it launched, landed on the 30th. Yeah, so I would have been in second grade then, yeah. Yep. I will not comment.

Anthony does not have any memories of that time. No, I was almost one. I was not even thought of yet. Yeah, there we go. Sarah and I are down here in this, in this end of the spectrum jake. I was going to ask, you mentioned, like, STEM being a tough thing to fundraise for right now. I was like, I don't know if you watch the news, but, I mean, having anything related to, you know, women's space.

What's the news? It's not really the easiest time to embark on an endeavor like this. I was wondering how that's going for you and how you're feeling about that. Actually, I don't know fundraising. Well, so one, I think the main thing is all the government funding has dried up completely. Like, you know, so like there's another organization, like I said, I think the first robotics Washington, they had a major hit because, you know, they had grants from government and stuff and those just disappeared overnight.

They've been there consistently year over year. So I definitely think the corporate aspect of that and personal giving has to step up, right? So that's where I think, you know, we just want to shine a light on it, that it's super important. and, you know, it's top of mind, especially for everyone working in this field and, you know, make sure that we keep it in the spotlight going forward. Yeah. I think the biggest thing is that this is just about the individuals and what we care about, what we're trying to drive. At the end of the day, we can tell people care about this because we've had feedback that folks want to do this. And that there's been a lack of this.

So in terms of timing, it all has to do with what people have told us and what we're personally, we're personally passionate about. That's really all this comes down to. So I haven't thought too deeply about that just because I know this is something that people want to do and that they're excited about. So I'm just, I'm lucky that we're in a position where we can't run this independently, you know. And I know that. I can say I can ask what I. Oh, go ahead, Jake. I was just going to say, I was going to say that I know Brooke Owens is having a really tough

time with it, right, because of all the, all the connections to the companies with their government contracts and blah, blah, blah. So I don't know. Like, do you still have industry people able to come out to these kind of events and stuff? Oh, absolutely. Zero problem. And if anything, like, the space is going stronger than ever, you know, you know, I guess as long as it doesn't cost the money to come. That's the, that's the point. Yeah, I haven't heard anything yet from anyone. I guess they can make that choice and make that call on their own. I think that's probably the best rule to follow at this point. Like whatever, you know, women or other folks who are going to join our event, whatever they feel comfortable with is entirely up to them. This is really just to

be happy and to celebrate and to build community. That's really what this is. So, and if people don't feel comfortable showing up for something like that, then that's up to them. And then we support whatever decision that they make. And, of course, we're available to answer questions as well. And on that note, how amazing these women have been in commitment and empowering, you know, we cut off half the space happy hour, you know, target audience and the reaction and response is absolutely through the roof. Maybe more than half the target audience. I'm not, yeah.

Maybe a little bit more than half of the target audience. But nonetheless, like I said earlier, the overwhelming, like show out for this, even just volunteers I mean again space happy hour is a global organization but this has gone global like overnight so it's been very cool to see that because because yes definitely over half and with that being said too like we we want these events to be inclusive the whole point of these events is to drive inclusivity across our industry right so if other folks and allies want to show up you know they are more than welcome to to come and to support the mission that we're we're doing. This is absolutely open to any folks who want to support what we're doing.

It's all, I mean, there's definitely a factor there that like you're going to get people that come out to this that wouldn't have even thought about it previously or didn't even catch their eye previously, but this was angled differently. And they're like, oh, let me remember read five seconds more about this than I would have otherwise. And that's like, yeah, that's enough to get over that home. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because there are so many people who might otherwise not feel comfortable going to a typical space networking event. So like for women, for women identifying folks, for allies of all genders, like this is for them. And for anyone who wants to support what we're doing and celebrate what we're doing, this is for them

too. And I want to make sure that that gets captured too, because as we're promoting the event and driving the event, that's something that we've been very intentional about and want to be intentional about, that people know that they are welcome. So, and again, that's the entire point of having done something like this. So, yeah. Well, and just to put chair on top there there's a town called Yakima Washington which is about three hours east of Seattle we already have a group there there's a women a group of four women who are going crazy organizing and they've got their venue selected even before Sarah's got everything I know I know I was just on our volunteers

meeting I'm running a big meeting with all the volunteers I'm like raise your hand if you have a venue and I'm like congratulations you're ahead of me I've been We've been a little busy. So anyways, New York, you will have a venue coming soon. If you have any suggestions, please message me. Shame there's not enough places to figure out where you want to go. I know, I know. It's such a void of ideas there.

There's only a couple to choose from. I'm really, yeah, I'm having a tough time. I'm sure we'll get it figured out, though, in a much. There will be something. If not, you know, an hour south, it's not that bad. Drinks are a little cheaper, too. Yeah, the cool thing about New York, as I am in a research process of trying to identify the venue. Okay, I know we're live again, so I want to make sure everybody knows this.

But the cool thing about New York is some of the more major metro areas is trying to find like a venue or a bar or a restaurant that's actually woman owned is another piece that we've encouraged our members to do. And in New York, luckily, I have a wide variety. So that's the one really good thing about being here that I'm excited for. to put some thought into it. Yeah. He's like, hurry up now. Get on that venue. He's like, uh-huh, now find the venue.

You're actually only here for 45 minutes of this show, Sarah, and the last 15 I reserve for you to go make some calls. All right. I have zero worries about Sarah. She's like on a call at me out. I'm getting like an agenda list and punch out. She's more. taking the reins on leading a global effort than you know it's like the cobblers kids have no shoes right so she's uh taking care of everyone else first yeah i'm sure the event in new york is going to be absolutely phenomenal it'll get done that's all that's that's my comment it'll get done it's going to happen how many days is going to happen

come on are we going to get it you got to get it on the um you got to get it on to the intrepid that's what you got to do you got to get on to the intrepid Oh, there we go. Is that possible? I don't know. Do they do events there? Sorry. I don't know if they do events there. I'm distracted doing the math in my head.

I have 28 days, 28 days. So everybody relax. It's going to get done. I promise. I guess they do events at the Intrepid. Right under Enterprise there? Yeah. Where is that?

I think that. The museum over on the river. You know what I'm talking about. It's a great museum. You should go if you haven't gone. All right. I don't look into it. It's great.

Concord. I'm pretty good. Okay, okay. I have seen one of the Concord. You've seen the Concord right next to that. It's a giant aircraft carrier. Can't miss it. Okay.

Seeing the Concord, I don't know if anyone else who's ever seen it. I felt like I was seeing a celebrity. I got like nervous before I saw it and now I've just exposed my level of space slash aviation nerdiness. But I can't. Should I blow her mind, Jake? Yeah, I think you should blow her mind. I flew on it once. I knew you were going to say that.

How do you know? I did not. This was pre-9-11, so I also went in the context. It was the second grade. I know. I was like, when did this happen? I think it was third. It was not that far off, Jake.

Now I understand why Roberta is so in your memory because of the relative timing there. Yeah, it was pre-9-11, so I got to go up in the cockpit, which was crazy. Wow. Yeah. What was it like? What was it like? The windows were tiny, but it was like purple and black out the window. You could, from the cockpit, you could see the curve a little bit because you had a wide enough view, which was awesome.

And there was a absolute, like, and there were four people in the cockpit because it was still pretty, pretty manual. There was like a guy with paper charts and two pilots and a communicator. And an overwhelming amount of buttons. I bet. It was crazy. It was unbelievable. Everything was a hardwired switch, so there was just like a copper wire. It was unbelievable.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That is so cool. I've always had, I've always been very, I bet. I can't even believe that. I've never talked to someone that's blown in it. That's crazy.

My dad and I have a thing for flying on weird stuff together, and it was, this was like, it was 99 of 2000. I forget exactly. It must have been, it was 99. It was a spring of 99. And he was like, this was going away. Like, this is not around for a bunch of, longer let's do it like let's do this thing so cool so yeah we've flown on like there was there's a foundation in the u.s that flies world war war two aircraft they restore and then fly it so we've flown on

like a b-17 and a b24 and like we have a thing for flying on weird stuff together i love that well i'm gonna blow your mind hence why i'm here doing this yeah blow my mind spring of 99 you said yeah i wasn't born yet either yes Love this. Sorry to break it to you. No memories. It was April, April 99. Actually, I have the paper that says I flew on it right there.

I can't see the tears in my eyes. They're falling into the cross feet cracks going on here. That along with your Costco bill is not a great day. Did this focus on my background yet? Can you see the concrete? Oh, yeah. Check that out. Yeah, right there.

Wow. Wow. That is so cool. No, genuinely, I know we're cracking jokes, but seriously, that is really cool. Wow. Pretty wild. So you should do the event there. Do it under the Concord.

Hey, if I could somehow arrange for that, you know I would. Yeah, when you see the Concord, now when you see that the aircraft here in the Concord and you see the big tent at the back, there's a space shuttle in there. And that's we got to go get here. That's so cool. Just an atmospheric, though, you know what I'm. Still a space shuttle. Maybe New York can acquire a space shuttle from NASA or something. Senators get on that.

I should write a letter. Yeah, AOC. Start lobbying for this in Congress. I should write a letter. I should write a letter. Hey, she just might. Jeez. So speaking as fine on weird stuff, have you been a zero-g flight?

I've not. We always talk about doing the Off-Nom. The Off-N-VOMCOM. VOMCOM, that's. I just couldn't remember the name. I was thinking of the ROM-COM, which we were doing. Yeah, we're going to fill a rom-com on the Off-N-VOM-com. Right.

Offnom rom-com. Yeah. The off-nom-com, rom-com, yeah. Right. That's exactly what it was. Yeah. So we got to do that. Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah. We've got to raise some funds. Yeah. Apparently, they're not like just super cheap to buy. I don't know. I'll see. So I went on one, it's well over 10 years ago now. It was amazing.

Absolutely phenomenal. The biggest thing about it is, you know, as much as, like, you know, as much as, like, you know about physics, like, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, that coming to life and, like, actually experiencing firsthand, you know, they tell you, don't push off hard, all that stuff, which like you get with your fingertips, but you don't realize like, hey, you push off gently with your legs, like your arms, your legs are way more powerful, so you push on gently. Oh, now I've got to catch my whole body weight with my arms, right? Or your fingertips or whatever, right? So the other thing I'll say is Greg Mellon over at ZOG's amazing guerrilla marketer.

So several years at Space Symposium, you know, he doesn't run a booth, but he rents a limo and like rolls around. And so it's always a great idea. He puts like, you know, plasters it because like you can do nothing about cars driving around. So he plasters, you know, zero G all over a really nice limo.

And then it makes a nice limo. You can go like sit down off your feet are like super tired at Space Symposium, have a beer in the back of his limo. And, uh, you know, he gets like a good bang for his buck. That's the funniest thing to me that like a high end experience is doing a like selling T-shirts on the way out of the sports game kind of for like,

That's the most off-nominal sounding thing I've ever heard about a conference. I love that. That's ridiculous. We should do that, Jake. That's a limo. I just driving around a conference. That's pretty funny. Which conference would you pick?

I don't know. It's a good question. Which conference has that energy? It's not IAC. No. I like symposium. Symposium was fun. I was about to say symposium.

Yeah. Satellite. Satellite. DC, that would be fun. That's a good spot to do. We've got to come out to Galactic Britain. You've got to make the, I mean, you've been all the way down to. What is Galactic Britain?

What the hell is that? Yeah, at the British Embassy. You're going to go on foreign soil for the night. And yeah, so, so actually, you know, fun thing. So one thing about Space Happy Hour is I have one event and like it opens a door to the next, right? And you never know where that long, winding, weaving of doors is. So I'm at the Amazon HQ2 event with Sarah, and this guy who's like, you know, very well-dressed comes up to me,

and he's like, hey, he doesn't have a British accent. He's like the one guy at the British Embassy who doesn't have a British accent. That's a red flag. Yes, me. You work at the CIA. So Nick Mangled, yeah, he's from Gainville. He's like, hey, you can do an awesome job by getting all these people together. Would you but consider, you know, doing an event at the British Embassy?

I'm like, is the Pope Catholic? Of course I'd do a space habit. So here we are. So we've done it twice a row. If I have my way, the branding will be, you know, something to have to do with like Empire, Star Wars, and the British Embassy for Galactic Britain. Yeah, they love that, yeah. Exactly.

And you still believe this guy from Gainesville who works at the British Embassy? You still believe that guy? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sounds legit. Yeah. You guys got to come. I said the embassy, I mean, I rented a limo and I just drive it around the embassy grounds.

Yeah, yeah. Well, actually, you know, it's super funny. So twice there, I've done two events at the British Embassy, which is also next to the Naval Observatory where the Vice President lives. So super critical because this happened the first time is I got stuck behind the Vice President trying to get to my own event because Secret Service shut everything down on the way to the Naval Observatory. So because it's like literally like the entrance where the Vice President drives in is like literally right next to the entrance street. It's still believe this guy from Gainesville. He's a legend now. I have a bridge I could sell you near where Sarah is at right now.

Gainesville on Hedltex. Yeah. Yark County. Gainesville on Ocala. Yeah. Gainesville on Ocala. I don't know. Shout out, Central Florida.

What the hell are we doing? Anyone have a favorite Sally Ride story? Because I just want to tell that one story from Lauren Grush's book, The Six. You got it. I think about this story every day of my life. I'm not even getting a jig. Sally Rides' astronaut interview

when they've asked her, did you ever have amnesia? And she says, I don't know, I can't remember. I think of that every day. Because I only hope to be as comedically brilliant as that in any moment of my life. I don't know. I can't remember. That killed me. I stopped reading the book, and I came back

later. I couldn't handle it. It's like went for a walk, yeah. That is so funny. That is one of the funny. That is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in my life. I've been watching a bunch of her interviews and just her talks. And she, the way that she speaks about space and her experience. And also, too, I appreciated the almost like bluntness and dryness that she speaks with because it's very clear what she's focused on.

But also, yes, some funny comments for sure. I mean, and obviously it takes a very bright person to be able to. to be that witty and that's what she was. So it makes a ton of sense. It's hilarious. I also feel like there's no room in this current era of astronaut to be like that in a disappointing way. Because that was like, I don't know,

she's got that vibe of like the early astronaut era when they would be a little bit of a hot shot and say these kind of smart ass comments that were hilarious and like, you know, now you would never hear. They would be like, well, that's a great question. She was allowed to say whatever she wanted. Yeah.

I love that. I mean, she earned that right. So you know what? Yeah, they asked her whatever they wanted. So she Well, exactly. They asked her if she wanted. I think she got asked one of my she, I was watching a clip of her. I guess she got asked like, like seriously. If she was going to be cooking for the men in space while they were on their mission. So I think she was probably a little bit over some of that. But and and it's it's crazy to think. I mean, that was in the 80s. That was not that long ago. That was, again, I was still not born. Yeah, neither. That was not that long ago. It was not that long ago.

These old ass guys here on the call. So, yeah. But no, learning about her. 80s, number one. Yeah, yeah. But learning about her experience and, and that's what she was going through. I mean, yeah, I'd be right there with her answering how she was answering it. And it's actually excited she was a tough interview and for good reason.

So, yeah, that's hilarious. I don't know. I don't remember. So funny. Yeah, she was incredible. I know nobody in my life is going to ask if I've ever had amnesia, like, in the near future. But I'm like, and I hope if I ever do, I remember this comment. That's the other unfortunate part.

I'm like, I'm never going to be able to use this, you know? I just say, you know, I'm going to be a modern person who could do that would be Jared Isaacman. But, you know, it makes a difference when you pay your own way, right? Well, that's a good point. You can wear a flight suit anywhere he wants. Exactly. Jake, do you have a Roberta story? Or do you just remember learning about it while she was up there?

Yeah, I just remember that. Just remember learning about her at first for any other astronauts. I mean, we only had like three or something at the time. So it wasn't like that much of a chance, I guess. Not much luck involved there. We had three and one was in space. So that's who I learned about. Yeah, that is cool.

I mean, that's not something that I feel like most people can say. So coming from me, I think that's really cool. That's great. Get the numbers. I mean, Jake, you know. Yeah. I would love to.

Yeah. So we're working on it. We're working on it. Cool. Okay. Well, so we got a couple minutes left here. So maybe just to recap where should people go if they want to learn more. If they're if they're sold you sold them and they want to show up or participate or whatever.

Recap the places to go. Well, first and foremost, we're. excited to have you if you do show out for a sally's night event or a women's night event any of the other countries in your respective cities where you are we're also so appreciative if you want to get involved and we're here to answer any of your questions that you have but first and foremost most information that you need is going to be on sallies night.com that's our website you'll be able to find everything with respect to the countries the cities where we have events and what is needed there if you are interested in volunteering you'll also find on sallies night dot

the link to our volunteer registration form. Fill that out and we will loop you into volunteer communications. You don't have to reach out to us directly, although if you do have a question, please by all means, but once you've done that, we will reach out to you. We have a weekly meeting for volunteers that I will be running alongside Craig to make sure that everyone's on the same page. And again, if you do volunteer to host an event, the biggest thing that you're on the hook for is finding a venue. as one of our major themes of the night.

Find that venue. And we will handle the rest for you. And so, yeah, Craig, I will let you take the last couple of minutes. You've built such an awesome community with Space Happy Hour. You've built an amazing global organization. And this is just one of the ways that we're going to continue to spread the mission of what you're trying to do and bring in more people. So, yeah. Yep.

You know, it's all on Space Happy Hour. There's a huge giant link. So it's tough to miss if you go out there. So space happy hour.com, Sally's Night, all the other Roberta's Night. Just, you know, we've got all the URLs and we do that so we can post on social media. People can find it in their own respective countries. Follow us on LinkedIn. We, you know, after this event, we keep on going.

So obviously Sally's Night and Roberta's Night and all the other places around the country, November 13th. But we have regular meetups, Seattle, Denver, L.A., Houston, Space Coast. So follow us there. So, yeah, SpaceHappayor.com. New York. New York. New York, Washington, East Sea, Space Cafe on that column, follow up on LinkedIn.

Cities with and without space beers are available for space. Oh, that's what I'm getting earlier. So I was so excited. I went to, I'm like 15 minutes from Elsa Gundam. I'm in LA today because I'm hosting a software for a hardware panel tonight for LA Tech Week. And I went to Ralph and literally Space Dust was the only space beer they have. and like, you know, all the space companies

also go into a hospital and like a pair minutes away, that's the only one, but it's the one I wanted. So, you know, I don't even believe you're on the West Coast anymore, you know. Exactly. Wow. Exactly. And come out to space happy hour? It's okay if your valves leak.

I love that you packed that too. I know. Yeah. Or did you just go to a Home Depot and buy that this afternoon? Is that what you did? No, this was actually the same valve that was on a shampoo. pain bottle at our first birthday party when Starfish was there. We had the otter pup on a pool table at Bolero and Tukwila with Ari, Austin Link, Michael Madrid, the whole Starfish crew.

And I did buy that at a Home Depot, but that was two and a half years ago for Space Happy Hour's first birthday. We had a cake, we blew out candles. It was fun. You know, we, you know, we have fun time at Space Happy Hour. in the suitcase. You can't go wrong. Exactly. All right, y'all. Good hanging out. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it so much, you guys. Bye. 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 4, 2, 1,000, end of death.