On September 24, 2015, CosmoQuest got news that will change what we’re able to do for years to come. In a phone call that took me utterly by surprise, we learned we were selected to receive a NASA cooperative agreement that (if all goes well, and if Congress doesn’t reduce funding somewhere) will assure our future for the next 5 years. I wasn’t able to share any details until today, but with contracts sent and NASA agreements in place, I can tell you we’ll be receiving $11.5 million to 1) support CosmoQuest activities at 9 partner institutions, 2) to offer small research grants to 3 or more citizen science projects a year, and 3) to provide professional development both to scientists who want to be better at communicating and to educators who want to be better at science.

An amalgamation of all the institutional press releases can be found here.

We were able to win this agreement thanks to the support of our amazing community. Post sequestration, times got tight and you carried us. For the last half of 2015, CosmoQuest staffing was reduced to just me and Cory, and I know our site design and content has gotten a little thin from lack of care and feeding coding and the two of us were stretched way to thin.

Now that can all change.

In the next few months, you’ll start to see things grow, both as we bring on new staff and as we support more and more content.

Our first new addition is Susan Murph. She’s been working on Universe Today and Astronomy Cast for a long time, and now she’s helping us with CosmoQuest on all things content related. She is the awesome person who organized today’s press release.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to work to introduce you to all the new faces that are becoming part of CosmoQuest’s build team, and we’re also going to work on giving this site a facelift. Expect lots of questions about what you want to see and how you want to explore.

This is your home, and we want to know: Where do you want to explore today?