Sharon Eggleston founded Space Day Maine and has run it every year since 1997.
Sharon Eggleston founded Space Day Maine and has run it every year since 1997. She is the Northeast Regional Coordinator for Space Day and an Affiliate at Large of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, which has supported the programme since 2003.
An educator, project engineer and aerospace advocate, she has brought scientists, engineers, STEM educators and members of the US Navy into classrooms across Maine for nearly three decades, reaching tens of thousands of K-12 students. She has arranged direct downlinks between Maine students and Maine astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Cassidy, and over the years her events have involved NASA Chief Scientist Dr. James Garvin, astronauts Chris Cassidy, Charlie Hobaugh, Daniel Brandenstein, Duane 'Digger' Carey and Apollo 13's Fred Haise, Senators Snowe, Collins and King, and Governors Baldacci and LePage.
In 2005 Lockheed Martin awarded her the NOVA Award, the company's highest employee honour, for her work promoting Space Day across the United States and Canada.
Her entire team is made up of volunteers. Space Day Maine has become one of the premier K-12 educational events in the State of Maine, and in 2026 its 28th anniversary was hosted by the Maine Department of Education.
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