Colorado Native is a Part of the Historic Artemis Missions

When a, what could be, once-in-a-lifetime event happens for the nation, knowing that someone from Colorado makes it even more special. When that person is from a small town like Windsor, the stakes get even higher.

Many Colorado Kids Dream of Going Into Space as an Astronaut

Millions of kids dream of growing up to be astronauts some day, myself included. While only a very small few ever get to go into space as a NASA Astronaut, that doesn't mean that they do it all alone. Just because you're not going to the moon, does not mean that your efforts didn't help to make the whole thing happen.

Windsor Native Graduated an Engineering Doctorate From CU

Tim Straube, grew up in Windsor, Colorado; he's been with NASA for over three decades after attending CU Boulder. It's hard to imagine having such a lengthy NASA career after having grown up in small (yet ever growing) Windsor. He must tell stories all the time of how his youth was much different than how his adulthood came out.

It wasn't until things were getting prepared for the launch of the Artemis II mission that I discovered that Tim Straube was from Windsor, as his sister, Kristie Melendez bragged about him on Facebook:

In a 2014 article in The Coloradoan, Straube talked about the Orion project (behind the Artemis rocket launches,) saying that it was like the Apollo mission "on steroids."

READ MORE: Windsor Brings HAWK Crosswalk Signals to Town

As of February of 2026, the Artemis II launch (rocketing four astronauts to orbit the moon) had been moved from that month into March, as the "wet dress rehearsal" showed problems. With Tim Straube being the Deputy Manager for the Orion program's Program's Avionics, Power, and Software office, his skills will definitely come in hand.