A $125,000 public monument honoring Black and underrepresented pioneers of America's space program stands four blocks from Johnson Space Center in Nassau Bay.

Called EarthRise, the installation at St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church on Upper Bay Road was dedicated Sunday, Aug. 16, and is free and open to visitors year-round. Organizers told ABC13 no other monument like it exists in Houston.

Eight panels surround a sculpture modeled after capsules from the Project Gemini era. An arched stained-glass canopy inspired by the Pillars of Creation, a gas-and-dust formation in the Eagle Nebula, rises above a circular bench. The panels honor Ed Dwight, Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., physicist George Carruthers, Ruth Bates Harris, NASA Astronaut Group 8, Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., Sunita Williams and former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr.

The John and Joseph Talbot Fund of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas paid for the monument. The fund is part of a $13 million racial justice and reconciliation initiative the diocese launched in 2020, according to the Houston Defender Network.

An international design competition drew 23 submissions before Genesis Art Collaborative was chosen in 2023. Artists Liz Conces Spencer and Gene Hester created the stained-glass elements. Graphic artist Jose Dennis designed the capsule.

Bolden, who flew four Space Shuttle missions before becoming the first African American NASA administrator, has deep roots at St. Thomas. He worshipped there, sang in the choir, served as a youth leader and senior warden, and raised his family in the congregation. He once carried the church's communion paten aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on its final successful mission before the shuttle was lost in 1986.

Bolden said at the Aug. 17 unveiling ceremony that he was humbled to appear alongside the other honorees. "… I don't think I deserve to be there, but I'm privileged to be included among this group," he said.

Rev. Mike Stone, rector of St. Thomas, said the church wanted to recognize overlooked contributors to the space program. He told ABC13 the goal was to share "hidden faces and hidden figures" and acknowledge that reaching space took many hands.

The church itself is woven into Nassau Bay's space history. St. Thomas was founded in 1964 as engineers, scientists and astronauts poured into the area after NASA established what was then the Manned Spacecraft Center nearby. Astronauts Jim Lovell and Charlie Duke and NASA flight director Chris Kraft Jr. were among those connected to the congregation.

The monument bears the phrase: "We can do more together."

EarthRise is at 18300 Upper Bay Road in Nassau Bay. Visitors can walk the panels any day, free of charge.