I founded Project Night Sky at 16 with a simple idea: don't wait for rural communities to come to the telescope. Take it to them.

I was homeschooled, and my science education was anything but conventional. As a student I participated in NASA's Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope program — remotely operating a 34-meter radio telescope to conduct real scientific research. I was doing astronomy research before I could drive. I went on to spend years at the Von Braun Astronomical Society guiding families through our Apollo-era telescope, interned at NASA, and processed observational data on 'Oumuamua at the Cordell Observatory.

I earned my degree from the University of the South at Sewanee with a major in Russian and minors in Astrophysics and Chinese/Asian Studies, completed a language immersion program in Moldova through the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, and studied in Russia through Sewanee's Russian department. In 2017 a car accident left me with post-traumatic epilepsy and ended my physics track. I rebuilt — through archival studies, curriculum work at SpaceX's Ad Astra school in Brownsville, Texas, and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Alabama with a concentration in space archival studies, which will be completed May 2026.

In 2026, Project Night Sky launched the second-ever astronomy program in Zimbabwe's history — the first non-governmental one in the country. I applied for a Fulbright to fund Phase 2 of the project but wasn’t selected. I'm going anyway.

I believe the sky belongs to everyone. That's what we're here to prove.

— Haley Rice, Founder