Happy Hump Day {{first_name | Toaster}} 🐪 ,

We loved all the moon memes the past two weeks, and now that Artemis II has wrapped, we’re all back to our regularly scheduled programming. Sigh.

For decades, space exploration has been framed as a single, defining moment: a launch, a landing, a headline. Missions like Artemis II tell a different story - it tested how far we can go and who gets to go with us. From breaking distance records beyond Earth’s orbit to validating life support systems and studying how radiation impacts the human body, this mission proves we’re ready for what’s next.

The story of getting to the moon starts long before Artemis II, back when space travel depended on rooms full of women doing calculations by hand. These women weren’t assistants or side characters, they tracked trajectories, solved complex equations, and made real-time decisions that determined whether missions succeeded or failed.

Women like Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan (often referred to as “human computers” and later popularized by Hidden Figures) were critical to major missions, including leading NASA’s most important computing units, sending astronauts into orbit and bringing them home safely.

Fast forward to today, and not much has changed about how complex systems actually run. Missions like Artemis II rely on thousands of people: engineers, flight controllers, software developers, and communications teams. Every launch is the result of constant coordination, follow-ups, revisions, and decisions happening in real time.

So why does this moment feel different? The Artemis II mission was the first to send a woman (Christina Koch), a person of colour (Victor Glover), and a non-U.S. citizen (Jeremy Hansen) beyond low Earth orbit. Representation at that level reshapes what feels possible, especially in industries where women have historically been excluded from both visibility and leadership.

Like many other male-dominated industries, aerospace and space tech still underrepresent women. Especially in leadership, technical decision-making, and access to funding. How can we get more women into space tech (and keep them there)? Not with inspiration alone, but with infrastructure.

If the next era of space exploration is going to mean anything, it’s that more women won’t just be watching history happen, they’ll be out there shaping it, discovering it, and leading it. Cheers to the moon, and hopefully, many more women with it.

Team Toast 🥂

P.S. Some cool women-led space tech companies to follow:

The best marketing ideas come from marketers who live it.

That’s what this newsletter delivers.

The Marketing Millennials is a look inside what’s working right now for other marketers. No theory. No fluff. Just real insights and ideas you can actually use—from marketers who’ve been there, done that, and are sharing the playbook.

Every newsletter is written by Daniel Murray, a marketer obsessed with what goes into great marketing. Expect fresh takes, hot topics, and the kind of stuff you’ll want to steal for your next campaign.

Because marketing shouldn’t feel like guesswork. And you shouldn’t have to dig for the good stuff.

Subscribe Free