How the BSA and NASA launched the Space Exploration merit badge – Scouting Magazine

On June 3, 1965, NASA Astronaut (and former Scout) Ed White made history by completing the first American spacewalk. Tucked into a pocket of his spacesuit was the Space Exploration merit badge. (Photo courtesy of NASA)

All new merit badges get introduced. Only one has gotten launched.

On June 3, 1965, two astronauts (both former Scouts) rocketed into space aboard NASAs Gemini 4. They carried with them an extra special payload: a small round emblem representing the Space Exploration merit badge, which was then the BSAs newest merit badge.

When astronaut Ed White took his walk into space the first ever spacewalk by an American that small circle of embroidered threads and khaki cloth was tucked into the pocket of his spacesuit.

I think that Scouting teaches us to be independent, to rely on ourselves and to solve our problems in the best way as they come up, White later told Scouting magazine. The things they are learning will equip them to be good citizens, and that is really the big value in Scouting.

The Space Exploration merit badge debuted during the height of the space race. In the 1960s, young people around the world were transfixed by the steady stream of out-of-this-world firsts achieved by American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts.

The badge was developed in close cooperation with NASA, demonstrating how top experts in science, industry, education and government are helping develop requirements for modern merit badges, Scouting magazine wrote in its March 1966 issue. That trend continues today.

The launch of the Space Exploration merit badge could not have come at a better time. Just four years after its release came the biggest milestone in the space race: Eagle Scout Neil Armstrongs 1969 walk on the moon.

At 56 years old, the merit badge remains popular among Scouts. With commercial space travel, return visits to the moon and manned trips to Mars on the horizon, the badge remains relevant, too.

The 50-Miler Award honors any youth or adult member who completes a trek of at least 50 miles by boat, by canoe, on foot, by horse or by bicycle.

Notably missing from that list of transportation options: a two-stage liquid-fuel rocket like the one used to carry former Scouts White and James A. McDivitt into orbit.

But just this once, the Boy Scouts of America made an exception. After White and McDivitt safely returned to Earth, the BSA presented the Gemini 4 astronauts with an honorary 50-Miler Award.

In exchange, Robert R. Gilruth, director of NASAs Manned Spacecraft Center (later renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center), presented the BSA with the actual merit badge that had flown in space.

So wheres the badge now? That important piece of NASA, American and BSA history is currently displayed at the National Scouting Museum at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

The badge is part of an entire exhibit devoted to the strong ties between NASA and Scouting. About two-thirds of all astronauts and 11 of the 12 men who walked on the moon were Scouts.

The exhibit also includes photographs, mission patches, the spacesuit gloves that belonged to Eagle Scout James A. Lovell Jr. and an American flag taken to the surface of the moon by Eagle Scout Charles M. Duke Jr.

See more in the museums virtual tour.

In December 1965, NASA astronauts pulled off the worlds first rendezvous in space.

The crews aboard Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 met in space at an altitude of 160 miles. At one point during the encounter, the two capsules were a mere 1 foot apart.

While these Gemini missions made front-page news for scoring another point in the space race, they made headlines in the BSA for a different reason: All astronauts involved were Scouts.

In Gemini 6, Walter M. Schirra Jr. was a First Class Scout, and Thomas P. Stafford was a Star Scout. Gemini 7 contained Eagle Scout James A. Lovell and Tenderfoot Scout Frank Borman.

This quartet of former Scouts inspired Scouting magazine to dub this rendezvous the first patrol meeting in space.

Even before the cloth version of the Space Exploration merit badge made its way to orbit, news of the badge made its way to The New York Times.

In a front-page story from March 6, 1965, the above-the-fold headline declared that Scouts Keep Pace With Atomic Age.

Scout merit badges used to be awarded for such homely skills as Blacksmithing, Pathfinding and Stalking (to take three, now obsolete, from the 1919 Scout Handbook), the article says. Today the badge program is setting youths toward new horizons. And the old Pathfinding badge may soon have its modern equivalent in one awarded for Space Exploration.

Then: These were the requirements for the Space Exploration merit badge when it launched in 1965.

Now: Here are the current* requirement for the Space Exploration merit badge.

*Requirements current as of the post date for this story. For the latest merit badge requirements, go here.

Want more merit badge history? Go here.

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How the BSA and NASA launched the Space Exploration merit badge - Scouting Magazine