Leland Melvin, the NFL wide receiver turned NASA astronaut, is inspiring kids everywhere to chase their dreams with his new graphic novel Space Chasers.
“All zip codes can be part of the journey,” says Melvin, who went viral for his 2008 NASA astronaut portrait featuring his two rescue dogs, Jake and Scout.
Out on February 4, 2025, the book, which is the first of a three-part series, is aimed for ages 8 to 12. It focuses on Tia Valor and other kid astronauts who get into some trouble in outer space. They become little problem solvers who work together to make their way back to earth.
Telling the story through a graphic novel was important to Melvin.
“As an older person who is trying to get the next generation of explorers to see what’s possible, what better way to do that than having a graphic novel that’s reaching middle grade kids?” the Virginia native says. “Because a lot of kids can’t read or it’s hard for them to read. To have the images and the text helps them with their reading, and it doesn’t leave anyone behind.”
The bigger reach encourages more kids to explore space if they want to or never thought they could.
“It’s something that I never imagined doing as a kid because I didn’t see people that look like me doing that,” he shares.
Inspiring Road to NASA
Melvin’s story is fit for the movies. A kid who loved math and sciences, he also grew up playing football.
“More people were going to the NFL that looked like me than going to space,” explains Melvin, alluding to the underrepresentation of Black professionals in STEM jobs.
He got a football scholarship to the University of Richmond, where he studied chemistry. Melvin was initially drafted by the Detroit Lions. After pulling a hamstring, he was released from the team and started graduate school at the University of Virginia in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Melvin simultaneously got picked up by the Dallas Cowboys. But he pulled his hamstring for a second time and was cut yet again.
While still in graduate school, Melvin attended a career fair and a recruiter urged him to work at NASA. She ultimately got him a job there. Another friend later encouraged him to become an astronaut, which he later applied for and the rest is history.
Melvin says he often hears from people who say he’s inspired them to pursue similar careers. He memorably recalls an aerospace engineering Ph.D. student telling him he chose that path because Melvin told him he could when the now adult was in ninth grade.
How To Inspire Kids To Chase Their STEAM Dreams
The benefits of STEAM are plenty. It promotes creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills, as well as opening the door for typically high-paying career choices. Parents can help their kids explore STEAM, even if they have no experience in it themselves.
At an early age, Melvin was learning about mechanical and chemical engineering through family activities with his parents who were school teachers.
“Every summer we went on a camping trip somewhere. We were always exploring in a camper that my dad and I built together—a $500 bread truck that we turned into a recreational vehicle,” he says.
Parents everywhere can engage their kids in similar ways. “The biggest thing that parents can do sometimes is get out of the way or their kids’ exploration,” says Melvin, one of the producers of National Geographic’s 2024 film The Space Race, which highlights Black astronauts.
For example, kids banging on pots and pans can actually be an acoustics experiment. If the noise is too much, parents can also take kids to science museums. Or let them play with STEAM toys that build their imagination, including age-appropriate chemistry kits. Lego sets without an end point are another great choice.
“Let them create their own things,” Melvin suggests. “Following instructions is good but having your own designs and creations is really a great way to let that creativity flourish.”
Melvin also offers experiments on his website that parents and children can do together.
His other big tip: Let children fail.
“They’re going to learn something out of that failure, and that failure probably won’t happen again,” says Melvin. ”It’s better to fail early than later in life and you get a sense of what you can and cannot do.”