23-02-2025
Aurora art teacher won an international NASA contest. Now his drawing is orbiting Earth in the International Space Station.
Inside Mr. McCauley's art class at Aurora Frontier P-8, kids are encouraged to use their imagination. A recent assignment had students reaching for the stars.
"They wanted drawing ideas of what life would be like in space," Thad McCauley said.
As part of NASA's International Art and Poetry Contest, McCauley's students got to work creating art that could be launched to the International Space Station.
"Then here there's the flag and the astronaut," 6th grader Sofiia Mostiuk said of her drawing.
The 2024 competition, though, had a new twist -- not only could students submit their artwork or poetry, but adults could also. So, the space-loving art teacher in Aurora figured, why not enter his own creation, too?
"I was thinking about what the astronauts would do for recreation, so I drew this guy on a rocket board," McCauley told CBS News Colorado, showing off his drawing.
Just about a year would go by after McCauley and his students submitted their artwork to NASA. Then one day, he got an out-of-this-world surprise.
"I open up their website and the first thing you see is this picture with the observation window and the four pieces of art floating there," McCauley said, "and I'm like, 'wait a second, that's mine!'"
Yep, McCauley's make-believe astronaut is currently among the other contest winners getting a real-world view of outer space right now.
"They took my drawing and they, beamed it up, if you will," McCauley said with a smile. "Such a joy washed over me and I'm like, 'Man, this is pretty amazing.' I don't know anyone who can say they have a piece of art up in outer space… It just reminded me why I love teaching art and working with the youth because they still have that joy."
And so much of that joy is for their now universally cool teacher.
"Not a lot of people can say, 'Oh, I have an art piece that's up in space,'" Sofiia said. "That's really cool."
Mostiuk said she's proud of McCauley and inspired to also one day send her dreams into orbit.
"I would probably put in a little more effort trying to actually get my art piece up there," she said with a laugh.
McCauley said the astronaut doodle will return to Earth at some point after it's made a full orbit.
"They're going to mule down that actual piece of paper that was printed out and send it back to me in the mail, so I'll get a piece of paper that was orbiting the Earth," he said laughing.
And he already has plans to make space for his winning creation in his classroom.
"That is definitely one I will frame up and have here in my art room so I can tell the story to the Aurora Frontier students," McCauley said.
Nearly 3,000 art and poetry creations from around the globe were submitted for the contest, he said. McCauley's work is among a few winners from the United States, other winners are from Taiwan, Chile, and the Philippines.
