One of the most rewarding and symbolic traditions in the HUNCH program happens just before launch - not with speeches or a ceremony, but with a Sharpie.

HUNCH lockers aren’t just classroom projects - they’re highly engineered flight hardware built to carry critical equipment and experiments to astronauts aboard the ISS. Each one is made up of roughly 280 precision components, including 41 parts machined by students, and over 200 rivets, bearings, and fasteners. Meeting the tight tolerances required for spaceflight, these lockers are regularly flown aboard missions and are now on all SpaceX’s Dragon flights, built into the capsule.

Before being sent to the International Space Station, HUNCH students get the rare and meaningful opportunity to sign the stowage lockers they helped build. It’s a simple gesture with a huge impact: a physical mark of their hard work, pride, and contribution to space exploration, one that gets to take its journey to station.

Signing the lockers is more than tradition. As their signatures launch into orbit, they become a lasting part of human spaceflight history.