KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — Lonestar will immortalize two retired NASA astronauts, including one who was on an Apollo mission, with a data center that is on the Intuitive Machines’ moon mission.

The St. Petersburg-based company was at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Wednesday to honor Charlie Duke of the 1972 Apollo 16 mission and Nicole Stott, who was on the STS-128, Expedition 20, Expedition 21, STS-129 and STS-133.

The data center is just one of many payloads that will be attached to Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander, which is set to be launched to the moon on Wednesday night during the IM-2 mission.

“Not only is it 3D printed, but it is a tribute to Apollo and Artemis (the NASA moon missions), it represents the past and the future and that is reflected in the design of the data center,” said Lonestar’s CEO and founder, Chris Stott, who is the husband of Nicole Stott.

Both she and Duke are advisory board members of Lonestar.

Called the Freedom Data Center, it will hold data from businesses and governments, including the state of Florida. The data will be encrypted, sent and can be retrieved from the eight-terabyte center.

Chris Stott explained that the purpose of putting the data center on the moon is to protect the information inside from any possible wars or natural disasters.

But the data center has a very unique design.

When light is shining on the data center, it will create a silhouette or a shadow of Duke’s face from one side of the data center and on the other side, it will cast Nicole Stott’s shadow.  

“In the next 1,000 years, it will reflect in silhouette a man’s face and a woman’s face. Apollo and Artemis,” Chris Stott told members of the media during the press conference.

The designer of the data center that is supposed to last 1,000 years, Martin Voelkle of BIG, was also given an award during this press conference.

SpaceBilt build the data center.

Duke said being represented in such a unique way was very meaningful to him.

And at the age of 89, he said he would still like to go to the moon.

“Yeah, I would love to go back to the moon. I still pass the NASA’s flight physical, but NASA says, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ And at almost 90 years old, I don’t think I’m going to get a chance to go back to the moon,” he answered with a laugh to Spectrum News, adding that he is “rooting” for the Artemis members who will be returning to the moon.

An artist herself who was the first person to paint watercolors in space during a mission on the International Space Station, Nicole Stott shared her thoughts about the data center.

“I think this is the way we put the ‘human’ in human space flight. I think this is the way we establish a relationship with humanity so that they understand what we are doing in places like this, the exploration, and the science and the kind of the first steps to exploring even further is all about, improving life on Earth. It’s all about us,” she said.