The United States Space Camp is celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this June. Its actual birthday is the week of June 9, but the celebration lasts all summer, with special events and activities.
The celebration includes weekly appearances by astronauts, the unveiling of the Space Camp Hall of Fame, with William Shatner emceeing the induction banquet, alumni programs, alumni parent-child programs, and weekly VIP receptions.
Space Camp was started in 1982 to generate gusto about math and science to foster future generations of rocket scientists, engineers and mathematicians. Almost 500,000 students have graduated from it since it was opened.
The Space and Rocket Center is run by the state of Alabama on land donated by the U.S. Army. The camp has 3-and 6-day programs for children 9 to 11, 6- and 8-day for kids 12 to 14 and a 6- and 13-day programs for 15- to 18-year-olds.
For this summer’s anniversary events, you can seek inspiration yourself from the USSRC museum exhibit which provides the opportunity to see and experience the history of the manned spaced flight programs.
Interesting things to do at the Space and Rocket Center:
•You can climb a cliff face on a Martian volcano with the museum’s Mars Climbing Wall, or take a virtual journey across Martian terrain with the Mars Mission attraction.
•Watch Tom Hank’s Magnificent Desolation in the IMAX Theater.
•Take a close-up look at a variety of NASA and military rockets at Rocket Park.
•Gaze up at the towering space shuttle. You can get up close to a full stack, the space shuttle orbiter, external tank, and two solid rocket boosters, 184 feet high in all.
Space Camp will graduate its half-millionth trainee this summer and plans to set about the task of working with the next half million trainees, including students, adults, and teachers.
A refurbished Saturn V rocket will be rolled into place this July and a new Saturn V visitor center will open in November. Space and Rocket Center plans to put one of the orbiters on permanent display in a new facility. Space and Rocket Center is expects to welcome thousands of guests this summer during its anniversary season.
Source: American Heritage
