
8-year-old Roraigh has always loved space and reading, which is why he entered a contest to have an astronaut read him a bedtime story from space.
Like most good stories, Roraigh's starts with an ordinary kid who was suddenly whisked away on a fantastic adventure.
Roraigh's dream is to visit Pluto because it hasn't been explored yet, and he's currently in the middle of reading the Harry Potter series (so don't spoil it for him).
So it only made sense for him to apply to the contest held by U.K. book publisher Lost My Name — a contest that promised an experience he'd never forget.
To his disbelief, Roraigh won the contest! He suddenly found himself at the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, watching an International Space Station rocket launch.
Also on that rocket? A kid's picture book ... about Roraigh.
Lost My Name specializes in personalized children's books. Not only are they super cool, but the publishers say they're proven to help kids better engage with reading.
When Roraigh's book finally arrived aboard the ISS, British astronaut Tim Peake recorded a video of himself reading the book to Roraigh. Then he beamed it back down to Earth, where Roraigh has watched it again and again and again.
"It was really cool, a real-life astronaut reading a book to you, from space!" Roraigh told Upworthy.
Sounds like every kid's dream.
OK, so not every kid gets to watch as a book about him is launched into space.
But now every kid can listen to an astronaut read them one of their own favorite stories, just like Roraigh.
It's all part of a nonprofit program called Story Time From Space.
Founded by Patricia Tribe, a former education director at Space Center Houston, Story Time From Space launches space-related books like "Mousetronaut Goes to Mars" or "The Wizard Who Saved the World" into orbit, where they're read aloud by real-life astronauts, recorded, and sent back to Earth. The astronauts also conduct fun science experiments relevant to the reading.
The videos are posted online for all to see so kids can follow along with a story before bed or in the classroom, all in the name of getting more children excited about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
And if you don't believe that's an important goal, maybe this'll convince you: Story Time From Space has its own official mission page on NASA's website!
Studies show U.S. students have been hovering around the middle of the world's pack in math and science aptitude for years.
That's a bit of a bummer for the future of awesome things like space exploration, engineering, and medicine.
But the power of a good story? That won't be going away anytime soon.
The people behind Story Time From Space realized early on that watching an astronaut reading a real, hard-copy book while floating around the ISS, with the Earth glowing hundreds of miles away in the background, would be a powerful experience for many kids.
"I decided that it would be a good idea to have astronauts reading from space combining literature and science, because one should complement the other," Tribe told The Toronto Star.
After all, it's like the nonprofit's slogan says: "What you cannot imagine, you cannot do."
Right now, Roraigh's book is still rocketing through space at over 17,000 mph.
One day, it'll return home along with several other books like it that have been read to the children of Earth.
Since his experience with Story Time From Space, Roraigh said he's been given "loads of space books" from friends and relatives, and that he's excited to keep learning about the planets and how they formed.
Sounds like the program just might be working.
You can watch astronaut Tim Peake read Roraigh's book in the video below, or check out the full Story Time From Space video library.






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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top, and there's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary, straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universally understood reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insenstive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport, with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season, according to a 2018 study. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skiier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.