Timothy Justin Dodd (born February 27, 1985), also known as Everyday Astronaut, is an American science communicator, YouTube content creator, photographer, and musician.[1][2][3][4] After becoming popular with his space-themed photo series, Dodd was hired by the website Spaceflight Now[5] to photograph SpaceX's CRS-3 cargo mission to the International Space Station on April 18, 2014, NASA's Orion Test Flight EFT-1 on December 5, 2014,[6] the United States Air Force's GPS 2F-9 launch,[7] and NASA's OA-6 Mission on March 23, 2016.
Career
Dodd originally worked as a photographer, where his main source of income was in wedding photography. His photography schedule allowed much free time, and he began using this free time to become involved in rocket photography.[8]
In 2013, he purchased an orange Russian high altitude survivor suit (crucial for water landings) in an online auction and later took photos of himself in the suit at a 2014 rocket launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as a joke; for a time, the suit was a trademark of his YouTube channel.[1][2] In late 2016, he grew dissatisfied with photography as his main means of employment, and continued to pursue his "Everyday Astronaut" internet persona on Instagram and Twitter.[2] In 2017, he created a YouTube channel covering spaceflight education, and that became his primary occupation.[2] He also makes music, which has been used as background music for Rocket Lab launches.[9]
After applying for the mission in 2022, Dodd was selected to participate in a lunar spaceflight as part of the dearMoon project crew.[10] The mission was to take place aboard the SpaceX Starship. Had it proceeded, dearMoon would have been the first commercial cislunar spaceflight, and it would have made Dodd the first YouTuber to enter cislunar space. The project was cancelled in June 2024, with the organizers citing broader Starship program delays for the cancellation.[11]
From 2023, he transformed his annual spaceflight recap videos of that the preceding year in spaceflight, dubbed "Astro Awards" to an in-person awards show. The Astro Awards have been held every year since then, honoring inspirational, innovative, and important mission of the preceding year, similar to the Michael Collins Trophy, presented by National Air and Space Museum.[12]
Dodd started an annual virtual award ceremony in 2017[14] to share the highlights of every year in spaceflight and commemorate the revolutionary space agencies and their missions. But since 2024, Dodd started the in-person version of the Astro Awards and called up spokespersons from different agencies and rewarded them and their team for dawning space missions in that year. The Astro Awards ceremonies are held annually in January at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas.[15][16][17]
Honorable mention – NASA CCDev program selection of SpaceX and Boeing to restore American astronaut access to the International Space Station, bypassing increasingly expensive Soyuz missions.[18]
Honorable mention – ISRO's Gangayan preparations for human spaceflight at a very low cost[18]
Honorable mention – Rocket Lab's It's Business Time mission, for being the first launch of its Electron rocket to reach orbit and deliver a payload.[18]
↑Byrne, Brendan (March 31, 2017). "Meet The "Everyday Astronaut"". 90.7 WMFE. WMFE. Archived from the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019.
↑International Astronomical Union (March 17, 2025). "New Names of Minor Planets"(PDF). WGSBN Bulletin. 5 (4). Retrieved March 24, 2025. Timothy Justin Dodd (b. 1985) is an American science communicator, photographer, and musician. His YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, where he makes videos about spaceflight, has gained more than one million subscribers.
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