The Starshine satellites are the idea of one man. Gil Moore is a former teacher who taught space science at Utah State University and the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Mister Moore now is the director of the Starshine project. For several years, Mister Moore thought it would be fun to have school children take part in the space program. The question was how this could be done.
School children are too young to be astronauts.
And working on most space equipment calls for many long years of expert experience. Gil Moore wanted to create a project that would permit school students to learn about space. He wanted to help children to take an active part in helping prepare a satellite for real space flight. Mister Moore created a very simple project that met all of his goals. He decided that students could help build satellites that they could clearly see from Earth without using special equipment.