BOULDER — The Out Astronaut Project, a Boulder-based LGBTQ advocacy group, is teaming with the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals to improve opportunities for members of the LGBTQ community to be involved with space-related science, technology, engineering, and mathematics work.

“Astronauts inspire our youth, represent limitless possibilities, and serve as ambassadors to STEM,” Out Astronaut Project Executive Director Jason Reimuller said in a prepared statement. “We believe that communities are empowered when they are represented.”

The project “will highlight the contributions of LGBTQ members currently working in science and space, provide grants to promising LGBTQ students currently pursuing professions in space-related fields, and to eventually train and fly an ‘Out’ member of the LGBTQ community to conduct a scientific mission in space as a scientist-astronaut,” according to a news release.