Countdown Cadets
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For homeschool families

Space science that starts with the launch your family can watch.

Chapters of short missions for kids 7 to 10, each with quick checks, a review and a hands-on activity at home. Real launches give you a reason to open the next one.

What one mission looks like

  1. 01

    In the app, about 8 to 10 minutes

    A few cards with pictures and some animations, two quick checks along the way, a short activity, and a three-question mission review at the end.

  2. 02

    Mission at home

    An activity away from the screen, like a balloon rocket or a sky-watch task, with a printable worksheet and a note for grown-ups.

  3. 03

    A patch and a record

    Your child earns the mission's patch. You see in the Parents area which missions each child finished and when.

The Missions screen: Chapter 1, Liftoff, with finished, next and new missions, and locked missions further down.
From the app, October 2026. Still in testing.
The course so far

Three chapters, eight missions each, a certificate at the end of every chapter.

Chapter 1

Liftoff

How rockets leave the ground.

  1. What is a rocket?
  2. Why rockets tilt
  3. Fuel and oxygen
  4. Liquid and solid rockets
  5. The launch pad
  6. What T minus means
  7. Weather and scrubs
  8. Boosters that land

Certificate Junior Rocket Scientist

Chapter 2

Around Earth

What keeps things up there.

  1. What is gravity?
  2. What is orbit?
  3. What satellites do
  4. Earth spins
  5. Why we have seasons
  6. GPS: satellites that find you
  7. Weather from space
  8. Spotting the space station

Certificate Orbit Navigator

Chapter 3

Deep Space

Living and exploring far from home.

  1. Living in space
  2. Sleeping in space
  3. Space food
  4. Why astronauts need suits
  5. Spacewalks
  6. Why the Moon changes shape
  7. Going back to the Moon
  8. Mars: the next step

Certificate Deep Space Explorer

Chapters open in order, so younger kids aren't overwhelmed. More chapters are planned. The free Cadet membership includes the first four missions of Chapter 1.

A week with Countdown Cadets

Fits around the rest of your curriculum.

One or two missions a week works well as a science supplement. On a launch day, open the launch briefing first, step outside together, then do the mission that matches it.

Printables live in one place in the Parents area: the at-home worksheets and the chapter certificates with your child's nickname and the date.

Every mission, quiz and worksheet is checked against NASA, ESA and JPL sources before a kid sees it.